Emerald Dynasty
by Alecca
Summary: 6 or 7 years into the future, Buffy has abandoned slaying, Sunnydale and the scoobies for the sake of her daughter, but when the ghostly figure of a dead slayer emerges from the past to kidnap her child she turns to Angel Invest. for help. COMPLETE
1. Prologue

**Emerald Dynasty**

_"...And she would walk down the path, as had so many of her ancestors. From the prime, the first of their mighty family, to her sister, who had walked there only yesterday... She would feel the power and force of her eternal forefathers, their strength would enlighten her, and she would walk down that path again, bejeweled with emeralds, glory of her dynasty."_

**Prologue**

_From grave to grave she moved, from hollow ground to greater palace, same damned soil, still broken hope, but yet she lived after so much time in hell_

Night came on, and the moon rose higher over the city where demons never slept. Hell had unleashed upon this town over the years innumerable times, in unknown ways, rotting its population into its grave. But still the little town, Sunnydale by day, Hellmouth by night, was full of life: as always, denial enlightening the hearts of the mortals that dwelled in it.

But once this city had a hero, one that now did not exist in peaceful Sunnydale anymore. She-- born to this world to protect humanity. She -- the chosen one, who would stand against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness. She--The Slayer. Once, her name was enough to scare the demons into hiding, but now they roam free, very few remembering the small blonde who had wreaked havoc among them only a few years back.

The town itself had changed since the slayer's departure. Sunnydale High stood, now, proud and new, on the ruins of the old. Houses were built, some were torn down, and some were rebuilt. And many new people had come here, half demons, half mortals, attracted by the simplicity and massacre Sunnydale represented.

And somewhere between houses, very much alike, there was one particular one, abandoned, the 'for sale' sign still lying on the front yard, beaten by time. Abandoned, haunted by memories, dust on furniture left untouched, so impersonal, locked away in time. The Summers home. Stripped of its inhabitants and their most treasured possessions, unvisited and ignored for years, the house still stood proud.

Elsewhere on the Hellmouth, the UC Sunnydale campus was still full of life, even by night. With fraternity parties, lone students studying in halls… and vampires stalking their victims.

And somewhere, up on a hill, in a graveyard, between the cold tombs and the freshly risen vampires, lay a lonely grave, surrounded by willows. The grave of the person who had 'saved the world, a lot'. But, though her body lay still under the earth, Buffy Anne Summers walked, and talked, and lived among humans, somewhere else, far away from Sunnydale.

A cold breeze blew, the willows moved their branches in the wind. The moon shone down. An unnatural light surrounded the grave, or rather, the area next to it, until from under the earth, a spirit rose, a primordial creature that stared at the grave in confusion. Its form shifted to human, female features, though her translucent body, and her glowing dark eyes, would scare anyone mortal.

"She's...dead?" a ghostly voice fitted perfectly with her features. "No" she answered herself, as her form shifted to that of a small girl, her big blue eyes shining, her skin white as flour, her blond curls falling freely around her round face. "She's alive. Somewhere. Out there," her head turned towards the horizon, her immortal gaze seeming to search for the dead slayer. "But where?" her form shifted to that of a young Asian girl, with long black hair, and a brilliant white kimono surrounding her slender form. Her black eyes pierced the night finding no answer.

A cold wind blew through the small garden in the back of the house, bringing an unnatural chill in the summer night. The branches of the willows tugged at the windows of the lower level, making an eerie sound, like if someone was knocking on the glass with their fists.

Inside the house, the little girl, standing in front of the fire place, playing with her stuffed bear, suddenly turned her head towards the window. She thought she had heard something, but no, it was only the willows scratching at their windows like always. Her mother loved those willows, but she didn't understand why, no one else had willows in their garden except them. When she had asked her mother why she loved them so much, her mother had told her it was because they reminded her of eternity. She didn't understand what she meant, she was only four years old. "Forever?" she had asked her mother, and she had just smiled at her. "Like daddy?" Her mother had thought about it for a minute before answering her, "Yes. Like daddy." That sad smile had washed over her like always and she had leaned down and kissed her on her forehead.

Turning back to her stuffed bear, the only gift she had from her father, she thought she heard her name being called from outside like it was whistled in the wind. Mesmerized, the little girl stood up again, taking the bear in her arms and heading for the window. No one was there, only shadows in the dim light of the moon. The little girl saw the shadows, but she could see beyond that as well. She saw a glowing figure waving at her from the back of the garden, calling her. And she knew who it was, she had felt that presence somewhere else, and she knew she had to meet it. She wasn't scared. Not bothering to even put her shoes on, she went towards the back door. Sliding open the fragile glass door, she stepped outside, her feet touching the grass and the hard earth under it; she didn't seem to care, she just walked on.

"Fatima..." the frail voice called to her. The little girl smiled seeing the figure even closer. It was so familiar, something that seemed to start somewhere deep inside, in her roots, deep implanted in her soul; it was a call she couldn't deny her blood. She was too young to understand it, but she didn't need to rationalize, she just needed to feel it. "Fatima," she was finally in front of that ghostly figure, but she didn't fear it. She saw the figure smiled at her, before they disappeared into the night.

Back inside the house, her mother came from the kitchen, smiling, carrying in her hand a cup of cocoa.

"Who wants cocoa?" she asked, but her smile faded as she saw the girl was missing from her place in front of the fireplace. "Fatima?" she put the cup down on a table before going into the living room to see if her daughter had sneaked in there to watch TV. No one was there.

"Fatima?" she climbed upstairs, though knowing deep inside she would've heard her if she had gone up to her room. As she expected, it was empty. A deep panic and fear overwhelmed her. She went back downstairs. "Fatima!" she yelled in the empty house, no one was there except her.

The willows tapped at the windows, demanding attention. She turned towards them and then realized Fatima could be outside. Yanking the glass door open, she stepped outside. The chilly breeze surrounded her. "Fatima!" she yelled again.

She looked out across the backyard. Since when is it so big? she asked herself. It looked endless, like it lead up towards a hill and into a forest somewhere, though normally it was only a small garden surrounded by a high fence. High upon that distant hill, she saw what she thought was her daughter, a curly blond child, staring back at her, seeming helpless.

"Fatima." she let out a relieved cry as she ran towards the girl. Her relief dissolved, however, the closer she got to the small figure. It wasn't her Fatima, but a ghostly shape of a child with mystifying, blue eyes that glowed, her blond curls hiding a flour like skin and an unnatural presence. "Who are you?" she asked when she stood in front of the spirit-child. "No…" the small creature answered and shook her head. Her shape shifted to that of a black girl, the ghostly appearance remaining. "…who are you?" she continued the sentence of the blonde child.

"Where is she?" the mother asked menacingly of the spirit, understanding that it must've taken her girl. The spirit just stared at her in disbelief before turning to walk away.

"Wait!" she yelled, but the spirit didn't turn, it disappeared beyond the hill, leaving her surrounded by the fence of her backyard. Her hands gripped the wooden fence as she closed her eyes in despair and after a moment the wood broke under her strength.

She ran inside and dialed a phone number. After a moment it rang, only for a metallic voice to answer. "The number you are trying to reach has been disconnected" and as the voice started to repeat its message, a blind anguish seemed to overthrow her, as she slipped the phone back on its hook. Tears started to fall down her face as she stared blankly at the phone before picking it up and dialing a different number.

As she waited for the ringing sound she looked at herself in the mirror, wiping away her tears. Soon, the ring of the phone was heard. Then the machine said "Hi, this is the Harris" -- "That sounds lame" Anya's cheerful voice said, followed by Xander's voice in the background. "No it doesn't!" and then Anya's voice was heard again. "If you say so... We're not here right now, so please leave a message, after the beep. Bye!" then a beep.

She put the phone down. She crouched next to the wall, she felt so lonely...She picked up the phone again, there was one more person she could call, she dialed a LA number. After a few moments it rang and a cheerful voice answered. "UCLA campus, may I help you?"

"Yes. Could you tell me the phone number for room 231? I'm looking for Dawn Summers", her finger nervously tapped on a small table, as she tried to gather herself. "Of course... for your information though, she's in 256. Just a moment please" the cheery voice said and returned, after a minute, to tell her a number.

Hanging up, she immediately dialed the number she had been given. After two rings, a machine started. "Hi, this is Merry, Cecile and Dawn" three different voices said one after the other. "We're not here right now, so please..." the message stopped abruptly as the phone was picked up. She sighed and closed her eyes trying to hold back her tears. A giggling voice on the other end said, "Hi, is this Todd McMyers? Dawn's not here right now," a commotion was heard in the background as if someone was trying to grab the phone from the girl who was talking. Then a "Merry!" was heard followed by more giggling.

"No, this is her sister. Is she there?" she asked and the giggles on the other side of the phone stopped.

"It's not him!" the voice on the phone had turned towards the room in obvious disappointment. "It's your sister. Since when do you have a sister?" the voice asked and another voice answered her "Umm, I'll explain later," before that voice came to the phone.

"Hello?" Dawn asked into the phone picking it up.

"Dawn?" a weeping voice asked.

"Buffy, what's wrong?" she asked worriedly.

"Fatima's gone," Buffy said trying not to sob, though her voice was shaking.

"Gone? Did you look everywhere? Maybe she just went next door to play --" Dawn tried to calm her sister down.

"She's four Dawn, she doesn't go next door alone. Someone, something took her," she said trying to make Dawn understand.

"Something, like what?" Dawn asked confused.

"Something like a demon or a ghost...I'm not sure" Buffy said trying to remember the pale, shape shifting figure.

"Oh, that kind of something. I thought you quit" Dawn said while she twirled a curl of her brown hair between her fingers.

"I did," she said. "I just... I don't know what happened," she admitted. "Look, I'm sorry I called. I just needed to talk to someone and-and everyone else is busy."

"Buffy, it's okay" Dawn assured her. "Did you call the police? Oh… wait, I guess they wouldn't be so helpful in finding a ghost, huh? So how are you going to find her? Do you think she's still in the city?"

"I don't think so... I just don't know who I should turn to. My first impulse was to get Giles, but he's not around anymore. And Will... I don't want to bother her or put Xander and Anya and their kids through this. I..." she trailed off as she felt her tears falling down her face again. She was so helpless.

Dawn quietly motioned for one of the girls to hand her, her purse. She held the phone under her chin as she searched for something, finally pulling out a calling card. "I just might know someone who could help you," she looked down at the card that said Angel Investigations.

End Prologue


	2. Part 1

**Part 1**

_Time and time has passed, weeds are covering our house, spider webs our love, long forgotten, still believed._

She walked along the street, holding the coat close to her body, though it was a hot LA summer, she felt cold, a chilly wind surrounding her and only her. She felt as if every person passing by her was staring at her and shaking their heads in disbelief. The entire world seemed to accuse her, pointing their fingers at her. She was a bad mother. She had let her past come into the present and haunt her. Literally. She had given up everything for her daughter, her home, her slaying, even her friends. And now, it looked like all of that still hadn't been enough.

She looked up at the building she had stopped in front of. The Hyperion Hotel. It was so big. She had expected something smaller, not something that would strike the eye like this hotel did. 'Wow' she couldn't help herself from thinking. She had never had the chance to see it, but Willow had told her that it was classy. She took a deep breath and entered. The lobby was empty. The front desk had open demon books scattered on it along with a laptop still opened to a web page, a demon dictionary. 'Guess they still have to use books' Buffy thought as she went further inside the building. No one was visible. Then she heard muffled arguing coming closer and closer. She waited impatiently until a door swung open and Cordy, Gunn and Fred, entered the lobby, wet from head to toe, bickering with one another.

"I am so not telling him he has to pay for the plumbing." Cordy said and Fred let out an exasperated sound.

"You two are the ones who blew the pipes cause having sex in the basement was so sexy!" Fred said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"But you're the one who did the permanent damage, playing with his ax!" Cordy defended herself.

"Hey, I'm still trying to learn how to use one of those things. It's not my fault it's too big for me." Fred added, "You know I'm not telling him!"

"Me either!" Cordy said and they both looked towards Gunn.

"No way! He's still pissed at me for blowing his car to kingdom-come!" Gunn said trying to talk himself out of it.

"As if!" Cordy rolled her eyes. "Demons blew up his car, you just happen to be driving it."

"There's no way I'm getting out of this, right?" The two women shook their heads. "Didn't think so," Gunn sighed. "I should at least be... dry," he said gesturing towards his clothes.

Buffy took this moment to step forward from the shadows.

"I like you when you're wet," Cordy said and stepped forward to reward Gunn with a kiss. Fred rolled her eyes and finally became aware of the stranger in their midst.

"May I help you?" she asked, trying to look a little more presentable.

"Mmm, yeah...is Angel around?" Buffy asked.

"I think so," Fred said "can I tell him who's --"

She was interrupted by Cordelia and Gunn breaking their kiss, and Cordy turning her head in shocked recognition of the blonde slayer's voice.

"Buffy! Oh my god!" Cordy let out a surprised squeal before, instinctually moving toward Buffy and hugging her.

"Buffy?" Gunn arched an eyebrow. "As in **that** Buffy?"

Fred remembered the stories she heard about the slayer who had died and was resurrected only months after her demise.

"It's been like what? 6-7 years? Jesus!" Cordy smiled.

"That long? Oh my God! Next year's gonna be the 10 year reunion from highschool!" Buffy said, the years suddenly pounding inside her head.

"Yeah, guess it's gonna be fun, to see everyone else again. Of course, a large part of them are dead, living on the Hellmouth and all, but who's counting, right?" Cordy said still smiling. "So how's everything with you? And the gang?"

"I...gave up slaying," Buffy told her and Cordy seemed surprised.

"Really? F..." Gunn was suddenly hit by an elbow in the ribs.

"Let him tell her," Cordelia whispered through her big smile.

"Just careful with the ribs, honey. I didn't stay in the hospital for two weeks just so you can break them again," he said between his teeth. "So you gave up slaying... what about Will and Xander... and Giles?" Cordy asked curiously.

"Giles... went back to England. He died about two years ago," Buffy said her voice mirroring the sadness she saw reflected in Cordelia's eyes. Over the years, Angel had managed not to lose anyone from their gang. They, as a matter of fact had even managed to enlarge it.

"I'm sorry." Cordy said, her smile fading.

"It's okay. It's been a while." She lost herself in thoughts of her watcher for a moment, before trying to return to happier thoughts. She was finding it hard to gather much happiness. "Uh... And Will's leading this big-shot software corporation. I'm surprised you haven't seen her in any business magazines." Buffy said. She was quite proud of her former best friend, she had built a company from scratch that was now threatening to overthrow some massive computer companies.

"Well, that's not exactly the kind of magazines we read. We have like this magic magazine from somewhere in Europe, and you know the daily paper, Demons Anonymous, a few fashion magazines, oh and Fred reads physics magazines. " Cordy pointed towards the brunette. "What happened to Xander?"

"Oh, he has his own construction company, he married Anya, has two kids. He's good," Buffy said looking down at the carpet.

"Xander Harris, married with children and a job! Never thought I'd actually see that one!" Cordy said remembering Xander's goofy face. She held on to that picture for a moment, it seemed to exist somewhere, a billion of light years away. "Well, good for them. Guess everyone ditched the demon business," Cordy said leaving the past behind her, where it should be. "Me, I have like a cable vision in my head, couldn't get rid of it if I wanted to."

"How did you quit slaying?" Fred asked curiously. While she could do without the constant life threatening danger, Fred had, over the years, found that she couldn't turn her back on the defenseless, or ignore the demons -- and she didn't even have 'the calling' in her blood as a slayer did.

"Never underestimate the power of denial. You just fake it, like nothing's there. So is Angel around?" Buffy got back to the reason she was in LA in the first place.

"Yeah, he's upstairs. He has this whole apartment set up. It's room 48, just on the first floor," Cordy said pointing towards the stairs. "The elevator has a few bugs."

"Okay, nice seeing you again," Buffy gave her a weak smile. "And meeting you...uh..."

"I'm Gunn," he immediately supplied, realizing no one had introduced them. He shook her hand. "Nice meeting you too."

"And I'm Fred. Short for Winifred," the slender brunette said, shaking the slayer's hand and giving her a warm smile.

"I'll see you later," Buffy said as she climbed upstairs.

"Does that mean she's staying?" Fred asked.

"I don't know about that, but if she's here for Angel, she's got another thing coming," Cordy said looking up as the slayer disappeared upstairs.

"She doesn't know about Wes?" Gunn asked surprised.

"She doesn't know anything about anything," Cordy verified. "As in nada, zip, zero, zilch."

"She's going to be shocked." Fred looked at the stairs absently.

"On the other hand, Angel's going to be so busy with her, he won't have time to be pissed about our little pipe accident," Cordy said with a smile.

Gunn grinned and added: "And once again we escape the wrath of the angry boss."

Fred still watched the stairs with concern.

Buffy advanced on the first floor, wondering if he had changed at all over the years, and what she was supposed to tell him... 'Hi, I know I haven't seen you in more then half a decade, but now I need you to save my daughter, cause I don't know how demons work anymore. So how have you been? That's lame!' she thought, as she stopped in front of room 48. She cleared her throat, trying to make sure she still had a voice, before she knocked on the door.

"Just a sec!" a female voice said from the other side of the door, then the same voice whispered to someone else. "Get the door." After a moment, the door opened slowly and Angel, as beautiful as always, stood in the doorway, half-naked, holding a shirt in his right hand. His body was still as perfect and desirable, as it had been more then 8 years ago.

"Buffy?" he was surprised to see her after so long. She hadn't changed much; only her eyes betrayed her age. "Come in." He stepped away from the door and went inside, turning his back on her as he walked. She caught his hesitant glance towards one of the doors leading to a bedroom, probably.

She stared at his back and his tattoo. She just wanted to reach out and caress it, to see if it was real. He seemed like something that had stepped out of her dreams. After so long, he seemed only a passing creation of her mind. He pulled the shirt over his head. The apartment was massive, the living room area especially.

"God... I don't even know what to say," he said, while he turned towards her again and leaned down on a table. "You look..."

"Old?" she asked, sitting down on a chair, facing him.

"I was going to say ravishing, as always," Angel said smiling.

"Yeah, well I don't feel anything like it," Buffy said, staring at the closed door behind him for a moment. She couldn't help but wonder who was hiding behind it.

"You don't look a day older since I last saw you," Angel told her, and it was true. "You know, they say slayers age harder."

"Probably because they die before turning 20" Buffy suggested.

"No, really. There was this slayer. The oldest one that ever lived. She died on her 27th birthday. She was decapitated, but that's beside the point," Angel said leaving out the fact that he was the one to end her life.

"I'm 27 and five months old" Buffy looked up at him, and Angel realized his mistake.

"Oops," he said putting on a goofy smile.

"God!" Buffy couldn't help smiling, knowing that if she started to laugh she would eventually wind up crying, and she didn't want to cry in front of him.

"So what happened?" he asked, sensing her change.

"I need help," she said, looking back at him, her hands sitting numb in her lap.

"You?" Angel asked, surprised.

"Who was it?" a voice asked from another room, before a child came running in the room laughing, a small, brunette boy. In one quick move, Angel took the boy in his arms. Buffy looked at the boy curiously.

"I'd like you to meet Wesley. Wes, say hi to Buffy," he told the small boy, turning him towards her.

"Hi, Buffy" the small boy said cheerfully, looking over at the slayer.

"Wesley's my son" Angel told her.

"Daddy!" the boy pointed at him. Buffy was shocked as he expected, not understanding how he could have a child, or who the mother was.

"Our son," Angel said, as Faith stepped into the room, surprised by the presence of her former slayer sister.

"B? I mean Buffy?" she corrected herself. "God, haven't seen you since... I went to jail. What've you been doing? You, like, disappeared off the face of the earth."

"I...uh..." she was trying to come to from her shock. "I gave up slaying," she managed to let out, surprising them this time.

"Really?" Faith asked as Wesley reached out for her. "You didn't seem like the type to...give up." She took her son in her arms.

"Well, things change. I changed," Buffy said.

"Cool, so I'm the only active slayer?" Faith asked while her son snuggled to her chest.

"No, there's this new slayer. She'd be around 18 by now. When they found out I was quitting slaying, for good, the Slayer's Council sent in the mob squad, gave me a moment of death so they could have a brand-spanking new slayer. Never seen her," Buffy explained. There was a moment of silence. "How can you have children? You're a vampire!"

"It's a weird story," Angel said.

"I totally freaked when I found out I was pregnant!" Faith added.

"So you two...are...uhm...married?" she asked, not understanding anything. At the same time, Faith and Angel burst into laughter.

"You know if I did get married, in a church, I'd be ashes before I got to say yes," Angel said, stopping his chuckling.

"It was a one night stand," Faith explained. "I'm not sure even right now, what exactly happened. We had one of those big battles, that makes you think about life, and the opportunities you might be missing... so one thing led to another. We thought Angelus wouldn't show, cause he doesn't love me like that."

"We thought wrong. It felt so right, I was actually happy. That's why I hate to think about things, life especially," Angel said, smiling at Faith.

"So he got a little knife-friendly on us, till Wes managed to bribe a gypsy to fax and translate the curse for us. So it sorta ate us out of house and home for a while, but it was worth it. As for this Wes…" Faith looked down at the boy, who had fallen asleep in her arms. "Turns out that demon we chopped had this thing about sending human vibes to non-mortals."

"So we had a baby." Angel smiled at his son.

"And we're both technically single," Faith added.

"Technically?" Buffy asked, not understanding.

"He has this massive crush on...uhm..." Faith stopped herself, not knowing if she should continue, feeling strange. "And I think I'm falling for this guy."

"And she won't tell me anything about him. I mean, I tell her everything, she's so ungrateful!" Angel gave Faith a wicked little smile.

"If you wouldn't have set me up last time, maybe I would," Faith said. "I'm gonna go put him to bed," she said as she disappeared out one of the doors of the apartment.

"Now, what am I supposed to help you with?" Angel got back to their first subject.

"My daughter's gone," Buffy said, sitting down on a chair, looking blankly at the floor.

"Your daughter?" Angel asked, looking up at her.

"Yeah. I'm...not married...he died," Buffy said. "I found out I was pregnant after he died, and I decided to keep the baby."

"The baby...that's why you gave everything up, right?" Angel realized.

"Yeah. You don't know how it feels to think that your life would endanger that little baby, it's..." Buffy started.

"Actually I do know. We thought of quitting, but...we can protect him, with or without demons. Everywhere I'd go, my past would follow me, we couldn't get away. And…I didn't want to leave them in the dark," he was talking about the rest of the gang. "They're my family," he smiled. "Besides, what other kid can brag that he has a slayer for a mother and a vampire for a father?"

"None, or one. I didn't have much of a choice... I just couldn't take it anymore," Buffy said, closing her eyes.

"You don't have to justify yourself to me," Angel assured her. "I understand you."

"You always did" Buffy gave a weak smile. "Tell me, are you happy?"

"As happy as I can get without wreaking havoc," Angel said.

"Maybe I shouldn't have come to you" she whispered to herself.

"What?" Angel didn't understand what she'd said.

"Is Wesley dead?" Buffy asked and Angel was confused, then he realized she meant that his son's name was also Wesley.

"No, no, Wesley delivered him in a demon nest. It's surprising how hilarious a pregnant slayer is to them," Angel said, remembering the laughing demons, even now. "Especially one that's pregnant with a vampire's baby."

"I wouldn't know" Buffy said, she had laid low during her pregnancy, her friends taking care of any vampire or demon problems.

"What's her name?" Angel asked.

"Fatima. Fatima Joyce Summers," Buffy answered him.

"Nice name," Faith said, coming over to join them.

"It just came to me," Buffy told them.

"What exactly happened that you need our help?" Faith asked sitting down across from Buffy, next to Angel.

"Something took her. Some ghost, spirit, something," Buffy said, remembering the ghostly figure from her infinite back yard.

"We'll need a little more then that," Angel said. "Anything stranger?"

"Uhm...it changed form, and I can tell you this, she was not alive, she had this glowing thing..." Buffy tried to remember details, but couldn't remember them straight out, she had been too scared for her little girl to focus on details.

"She?" Faith raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, first it was a little blond girl, and then it was this black girl," Buffy remembered the two figures. "Teenager."

"That's weird," Faith said. "And me thinking we've seen more than half the progenies hell had to throw at us."

"You thought wrong," Angel smiled at her. "Let's go downstairs and gather up the crew."

"Find out what this thing is," Faith said, and stood up from her chair.

"Are you going to leave Wesley alone?" Buffy asked, looking towards the room Faith had taken her son into.

"Oh, yeah. We have Dennis. He's the best babysitter. And he doesn't have to be paid. And, he walks through walls," Faith explained. Buffy looked at Angel, confused.

"Dennis is a good ghost. Use to haunt Cordy's apartment. When she moved here, she managed to bring him with her," Angel explained better then Faith.

"Oh," Buffy said, nodding. "Does everyone who works for you live here?" she asked as she stood up and headed for the door.

"Yeah. We had to make some budget cuts when we restored it...the hotel" Angel said, following her and Faith out the door.

"Well, I'm sure there's enough room," Buffy said as she once again stepped into the hallway.

"Oh, yeah, you can even stay over till we figure this out," Faith said proudly as they went down to the main lobby.

"What happened?" Angel asked, though he already suspected it, when he saw Cordy, her back turned from them, looking through some papers, still wet from head to toe.

"Uh...bathroom accident?" Cordy tried.

"Wouldn't have anything to do with, oh, say, the pipes blowing in my face when all I wanted was to clean a stain?" Angel asked, and Cordy's smile faded.

"Okay, so the water pipes...uh...broke and it's kinda eating away the new paint and in a few hours we'll probably be under water. The lobby, anyway," Cordy said, avoiding what he actually wanted to know.

"And why did the pipes break?" Angel asked.

"It wasn't my fault. It was his bright idea!" Cordy pointed towards Gunn as he came out of Angel's office.

"What? It was your idea!" Gunn defended himself.

"Since you two are together, I have the Home Repair Services on speed dial. Make that go away. Use a bed for once. Be like everyone else for a change!" Angel rolled his eyes and went over to the phone.

"Look who's talking," Cordy mumbled so he wouldn't hear.

"I heard that" Angel yelled from the other room while he dialed.

"So, Buffy, what's the occasion?" Cordy asked, trying to take her mind off her 'incident'.

"My daughter's been kidnapped by big creepy ghosts and I need help" Buffy said it short.

"Oh," Cordy let out, while Angel came back. "So, what are we looking for?" she asked Angel.

"Shape-shifters, maybe even spirits," Angel said, thinking about it. "Maybe female."

"And...uh, I think they can create illusions." Buffy remembered her infinite backyard. "They made my little garden seem as if it was at the bottom of a hill, and a lot bigger."

"I think we can work with that," Gunn said sitting down.

"But first I need to change," Cordy said, heading upstairs before anyone could say anything.

"Where's Fred?" Faith asked, looking around, not spotting the brunette.

"Wes stormed in here a few minutes ago, desperate for some help on some physics thing. They'll be right back. They just went around the corner to that antique store," Gunn explained.

"What? He finally found that portal he was looking for?" Faith asked while she gathered up some books from the front desk.

"Yes, I did" Wesley said coming in, shortly followed by Fred. "And I finally got our client back on his feet and back into this world. And also a paycheck!" He handed Angel a check.

"This is going to cover the plumbing bill," Angel said. "For a moment there, I thought we'd lost him."

"We weren't about to let him live in some twisted grim Pollaca world," Fred said, a shiver racing up her spine.

"Yet he seemed to be enjoying himself when we found him," Wesley reminded her.

"Are you kidding? That thing was about to eat him alive and make drum sticks from his bones," Fred said, rolling her eyes.

"Damn!" Gunn shook his head to get the image out of it.

"Buffy!" Wesley finally saw her. "Well, it's been a while."

"Yeah." Buffy gave him a small smile.

"We were going to go search mode," Faith said. "Care to join in?"

"I'm not exactly coming to from last night's search, but I'm running on caffeine so... have coffee we'll travel?" Fred suggested, as Cordelia came downstairs.

"I'll just get hooked on the net, see if our friends are on-line," Cordy said taking her laptop from the front desk and sitting down in an armchair.

"Your friends?" Buffy asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Haven't been on line for a while, huh?" Cordy asked while her agile hands tapped on the keyboard quickly. "Cause if you had, you'd probably come across this" she turned the laptop so Buffy could see. It was a website, with a dove like symbol and a title that read 'Angel Investigations.' Under it: 'Demon database, mutual help line.' "This is our site. You wouldn't believe how many people have demon problems or run a demon killing agency. It's fun!" she turned the laptop back towards her.

"Okay, who wants the 'Spirits of Amare'?" Gunn asked, as he brought a big stack of books from another room.

"I'll take it," Fred said, reaching out for the book.

End Part 1


	3. Part 2

**Part 2**

_2002-2008_

_In the image of Buffy Anne Summers_

_Sunnydale_

_November, 2004_

"And you do this," he gestured through the graveyard, "every day?"

"Yeah. It's not that hard, if you consider that I have super powers," Buffy said as she strolled through the graveyard along him.

"Always wondered why you could open pickle jars without help," he smiled as they stopped near a willow.

"You know me, I'm gifted!" Buffy smiled back.

"In more ways than one!" He pulled her in for a kiss, and his eyes opened to stare back at the gravestone behind her. He pulled away a little confused. "Does that grave say Buffy Anne Summers?"

She hadn't realized she had taken him to that graveyard. She felt stupid for not taking down the gravestone, now that she was no longer dead.

"No, it's ah...misspelled. What it's actually supposed to say is Muffy Anne Summer," she tried, though it was a lousy excuse. "I know, my friends freaked when they saw it too."

"Muffy Summer?" he asked, not buying the story.

"Hippy parents," she suggested. "Let's get out of here, nothing's biting today." She pulled him away before he could ask any further questions. She thought he wasn't ready for the whole 'I died twice' story.

"Here, I got you something, it's pretty stupid," he said, handing her a bag from his jacket as they walked towards her house.

"A present, for me?" she smiled at him. "Thanks!" She gave him a light kiss.

"Don't say that before you actually know what it is. You might be disappointed," he warned her, while she opened the paper bag. It was a teddy bear. She looked at it, smiling. She hadn't gotten a stuffed animal in ages. "It's just…I had to take my little step brother to the amusement park and I fooled around at one of those shooting ranges, you know? And I won it and I thought of you. By the size you realize what a lousy shooter I am," he smiled while the slayer still stared at the bear mesmerized. "You hate it. I told you it's stupid."

"No, it's sweet. I didn't know you could be sweet," she said, smiling at him. "Really, I love it."

"Hey, I'm a sweet guy," he stated proudly, before stopping to kiss her again.

They reached her house, where the lights were out.

"Dawn?" she yelled when they entered the house. No answer. She went upstairs to find her sister's bed unslept in. "She is so dead" she said as she came downstairs.

"Probably with her boyfriend," he suggested.

"Yeah, doing who knows what," Buffy said, and laughed when she realized she was talking like a mother.

"They grow up so fast," he said in that melancholic voice parents used when they referred to their 'little' 20 year old daughter or son.

"Why should she have all the fun?" she asked, a wicked little smile crossing her lips.

"And what are you suggesting, Ms. Summers?" he asked, playing her game.

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe we could..." she whispered something in his ear, her gaze meeting his lusty one.

"You really wanna?" he asked again, and she rolled her eyes, giving him a hungry kiss, then stepping back away from him.

"C'mon, Georgie boy, are you afraid I might bite you?" she asked tentatively. He followed her into her bedroom as though hypnotized.

_New Year's Eve 2004-2005_

"Isn't it beautiful up here?" George asked as he looked over the city of Sunnydale, holding the champagne glass in his hand.

"Yes, it is." She came to his side, sitting down. "George, I have to tell you something very important."

"If it's about what happened with your table, I told you I'm paying," he said, amused by the remembrance of their sexual escapade.

"No, it's about something else. I'm..." Buffy started, but before she could continue, George's head flew off his shoulders, a shiny blade cutting through his neck, snapping it off like a twig. His still smiling face rolled down the hill towards Sunnydale. Buffy stood there in shock for a moment before reacting to the presence of the two demons standing behind her.

Later, two demon heads rolled down the hill in the silence of the night.

They stared at the marble grave, helpless. It was only days after the killing. They were instructed to bury the body as fast as they could before it started decaying.

"You know, like one moment he was there, and the next, no more head" Buffy said sadly.

Xander put a comforting arm around her. "C'mon, it's gonna' be okay," he told her, trying to make her feel better.

"No, it's not!" Buffy said between sobs.

"I didn't know you loved him that much," Anya said. They had been together for only five months before the 'incident'.

"It's not about that," Buffy said, not stopping her sobbing. They all stared at her, awaiting a reason. "I don't even think I loved him."

"Buffy, what are you talking about?" Willow asked, looking at her and then at the grave again.

"I'm..." her voice was shaky from crying. "I'm..."

"You're..." Xander coaxed, trying to make her continue the sentence.

"You're hungry?" Anya suggested. "Cause I really am."

"That too," Buffy said between sobs. "But... I'm pregnant" she finally let out.

"You're going to have tiny babies too?" Anya asked, happy that she wasn't the only one pregnant. "I'm not going to be the only fat one!" By now she was already almost 8 months pregnant. After a long period of separation and grief Xander and Anya rethought their feelings and realized they couldn't live without each other, so they restarted their relationship, taking it back to the basics. When Xander proposed a second time Anya was more then skeptical about it, but Xander swore on his life that he wouldn't abandon her again and to prove it he married her that very day with only the scoobies as their witnesses.

"Not for long, honey," Xander reminded her, turning back towards Buffy. "Did he know?"

Buffy shook her head. "I was about to tell him when..." Buffy gestured towards the grave.

"What do you want to do about it?" Willow asked gently.

"I think I'm going to keep it. I mean think about it; it's the last piece of him, and he's not coming back, ever. He died because of me, it would be the only thing I could do for him, a last gift," Buffy said looking down at the grave.

"That's not a good reason to keep a baby," Xander told her. "You'd actually regret it at some point."

"No I wouldn't. I think I need a change and this baby would be the best thing that could ever happen to me. I already love it. I would've kept it anyway, if he'd wanted me to or not. I need someone who loves me, who won't leave me, a part of me," Buffy said unconsciously touching her still flat stomach.

"Does Dawnie know?" Anya asked all of a sudden. Buffy's little sister wouldn't take this easily.

"No, but I'll tell her. When I have the courage," the slayer added.

"What about the slaying? And the demons?" Willow asked. "I doubt they'll give you maternity leave."

"Yeah, I was thinking about that too," Buffy said, turning away from the grave.

Xander thought things over for a moment, before saying it out loud. "My grandparents have this small house in the middle of nowhere. It has a phone and everything. Luckily for you they moved out two years ago. They're living somewhere in Long Island these days. Don't ask," he said when he caught their gazes. "It's too dull for demons out there, believe me, I spent 3 years of my childhood there, and it's not pretty."

"Are you sure I can..." Buffy asked wiping away her tears.

"Totally, not like my parents would ever go there, it's a place they preferred to dump the unwanted, while they argue," Xander said, a little bitterly.

"And we could hunt for demons, we've done it before, and now we're better. He's stronger and I'm white magic-y without the overall angst!" Willow smiled at her best friend.

"Yeah, I think I can kill anything with this thing," Anya pointed towards her belly.

"You guys are the best!" Buffy hugged them. They walked away, leaving behind the lonely marble grave and the murmuring spirits of the dead.

_3 months later_

The cool spring breeze blew silently through the forest, moving leaves gently on the branches. The small house was as silent as always. She was standing on the porch thinking things over, the events of the last few months seeming surreal. Leaving Sunnydale, for the first time, after so long... She looked at the horizon, towards the place where the sky met the earth and where, somewhere far away, Sunnydale, as haunted as always, stood, awaiting nightfall. She suddenly remembered the letter the postman had came a long way to bring. She took it out of her pocket and opened it, recognizing Xander's handwriting.

"Okay, so hopefully the phone lines are down because of the storm, not of supernatural disturbance. But let's think happy thoughts. Hope you like the house and everything's okay (otherwise you would've called, right?). Well, congratulate me, I'm a father, can you believe it? It's like a dream, but then I look at that small little boy and think he's a part me and... I can't describe it. So, Anya was a little pissed because of all the pain I neglected to warn her about, but when she saw our son… she is so sweet. She really loves him. I think I'm the luckiest person alive!

We're not really sure about the name yet, but I think it'll be Maxwell Rupert Harris. Sounds pretty good, no? God! I still can't believe it!

Now to Dawnie, she got a really big score on her SATs, she's a smart girl, I always said it. Oh, and she got admitted at UCLA, she really wants to go there, and I think you should let her, even if it means she has to leave us. I know you'll miss her, we'll miss her.

Will got that big promotion she wanted, we celebrated last night. Hope everything's okay with the baby. Wish you were here.

Love,

Xander"

She put down the letter, feeling lonely, wishing she could be a part of them again. She would soon be, along with her child.

_5 months later_

_Sunnydale Hospital_

She held the small baby in her arms while she breast fed her. She was so sweet and fragile, with her big green eyes, her own, and blond hair, naturally blond hair, compliments of her father's genes.

She was adorable and she was Buffy's. And she was so vulnerable and helpless, it broke her heart. She smiled as the tiny baby girl fell asleep at her chest, still holding the nipple in her mouth. She pulled her breast from her daughter's mouth, not bothering to call the nurse; she couldn't bare to have her baby taken away from her again.

She stood there holding her and just watching her. She was the most amazing thing that could've ever happened to her. Willow, Xander and Anya had been at the hospital all night through her labor, and had rejoiced with her at the wonder of the birth of her daughter. Dawn was the only one who couldn't make it, being in school. She'd called, though, and should show up any time in the doorstep. She sighed as she looked up the window and then looked down at her baby again.

She suddenly realized how unsafe her baby was, how hunted she would be. It crushed her heart even now to know that she would put this tiny life in so much peril.

But what if she wasn't a slayer? Why couldn't she live a normal life? With her baby safe and out of danger? Why couldn't she?

"Miss Summers? Miss Summers?" the friendly voice of the nurse called her out of her reverie. Buffy turned her head towards her absently. "May I have the baby now?"

"No," she simply said, already knowing what she was supposed to do, for the sake of her baby.

"I see." The nurse was about to push the alarm button, but found that her hand was caught by Buffy's. "Let go of my hand please."

"Okay." Buffy gave her a smile, before knocking her unconscious against the wall. "Well, so much for that. Now mommy's gonna' get you out of here!" The baby had been woken by the fast moves Buffy had made to disable the nurse. She looked sleepily at her mother before falling asleep again. Buffy put her down on the pillow for a moment so she could get dressed.

She closed the door to her room and kept her eye on her little baby while she got dressed. "Compliments of being a slayer, honey, you heal real fast," she told her baby. "Well I don't expect you to understand, you're only a day old," she added smiling. When she was dressed, she took the baby in her arms and with one hand she pulled the unconscious body of the nurse onto the bed, facing the window. She pulled the sheets over her. "See, now she looks exactly like mommy, except unconscious," she showed the baby, smiling.

She opened the door and sneaked out quietly. On her way out of the hospital, she grabbed a mommy bag from one of the patients who was about to leave.

"This is our lucky day," she said, smiling when she saw her car parked outside the hospital; Dawn must've arrived. Buffy checked through her pockets and found her car keys, blessing Anya for bringing Max with them while they shopped, the day she went into labor, putting the baby seat in her car.

"This is perfect," she said out loud, smiling as she put her little baby in the baby seat. The tiny girl curled up in the seat, sleeping. Buffy smiled at her while she started the engine. First of all she had to get home and pick up a few things, then she was going to leave Sunnydale. Forever.

"Who's the lucky mommy?" Dawn asked, smiling as she entered her sister's room holding the big teddy bear in front of her and the balloons in the other hand. "Buffy?" she called out to her when she saw the figure sleeping between the sheets. "Buffy?" she came closer to the bed, shaking the body. The figure groaned before turning onto the other side. "I think I'm in the wrong room," Dawn apologized before exiting.

"Buffy Summers?" she asked at the front desk.

"Ah. 159" the nurse told her.

"No, it can't be, I was just there, and my sister wasn't in that room," Dawn told the nurse.

"You sure she's at this hospital?" the nurse asked, and Dawn let out an exasperated sound before going outside to find that her car was gone. She suddenly realized what happened. She went back to the room and pulled the sheet off the unconscious person in the bed. She wore a nurses uniform and a name tag.

"Shit, Buffy, what are you up to?" she whispered to herself. She exited the hospital, dragging the big stuffed bear behind her. She grabbed a cab home, expecting to see the big jeep in front of the house, but she found nothing.

"Buffy?" she yelled hesitantly into the house, suspecting she wasn't there anymore. "Buffy?" she yelled again. She climbed upstairs; the door to her room was closed. She opened it and was shocked to see the room empty, except for the furniture that was left hollow. The room looked like it hadn't been lived in for years, or ever. She stepped in, an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach. She opened the door to her locker. The clothes were gone. So were the shoes and boxes, only the big weapons chest was still there. She knelt down and opened it. All her weapons were still there. She looked around, desperate to find some note that explained everything. She didn't find anything.

_7 months later_

_Sunnydale_

Xander put the last of the bags in the trunk. He looked at their old apartment one last time.

"You sure this is what you want to do?" he asked Anya when she came out of the apartment, holding a box in her arms.

"Yeah, I think it would be good. Like a new start, and good for your business too," Anya said, smiling. She was pregnant again, she had found out only a few days ago. At the same time, Xander got a proposal from a company for a big construction plan in Chicago. But it implied moving there and without second thought, Anya had agreed to leave Sunnydale and the hellmouth far behind, as had Buffy, who they hadn't heard from in 7 months. As had Dawnie, who was now a student at UCLA, and Willow, who was now working her way up a big computer corporation in New York and how had, a long time ago, Giles, Oz, Cordy and in the very beginning, Angel.

"Oh, you're moving?" the postman asked, surprised. "You should tell people!" he said handing Xander a letter, while Anya put the box in the back seat.

"Thanks," Xander said, wondering who would write them; they usually kept contact by phone.

Anya looked at the envelope in her husband's hands. It was addressed to Xander, and it came from San Francisco. It had an address, but no name; he didn't remember knowing anyone there, but the handwriting he would recognize anywhere. Buffy. He opened the letter.

"Dear Xander,

Sorry I didn't have the guts to write this when I should've, when I left. I'm writing, because, all I have to say, I want to say it without anyone interrupting me or hanging the phone up in my ear. In the first place I'm sorry, I'm so sorry for leaving you in the dark like that... It was a choice I made in a second. I was lying in the hospital bed, when I realized how much danger my life brings to my baby, and the idea of hurting her, it just killed me and it still would right now... It was a stone on my heart, one I had to lift. You have to understand me, I wrote you because I thought you'd understand me more than anyone and I still think so. I'm living in a small house in San Francisco, I'm nowhere in suburbia, don't worry. It's nice, it's mine. I work as a secretary for this big shot corporate type guy. Pay's good, it's hard to get a decent job without a college degree. For a moment there I thought I had to go through something like the Doublemeat Palace again. I hear they're still in business. My slayer skills helped me a lot on the secretary thing, I'm a typing tornado. What happened to the Magic Box anyway, are you keeping it open? And Dawnie, is she okay? She's in college by now, UCLA, right? And how are you? Please, answer me. I'll wait for your letter every day. Tell me what I missed.

How's Max? Fatima's almost a year old. That's her name. Fatima Joyce Summers. And Will, how is she? God... if you haven't heard, there's a new slayer. I've never met her she's from somewhere in Europe. Poor thing, I pity her. I'm so sorry, for everything.

Love,

Buffy"

Xander looked at the letter again, before folding it and putting it back in the envelope, only then noticing the picture that was in the envelope with the letter. He pulled it out. It was a picture of Buffy holding a small golden girl in her arms, a sweet little thing, and smiling, happier than he had ever seen her.

"What's wrong?" Anya asked when she saw him looking intently at the picture. He just showed her the image he was holding. "Buffy?"

"Yeah." He put the picture back in the envelope before going towards the car.

_Around 2 months later_

She looked at the envelope again, not knowing what it contained. She just wished that her friends weren't mad at her. What she had done she had to, for her baby and herself. She hesitated before taking it in her hands. It had arrived in the morning. She opened it, to find Xander's writing.

"Dear Buffy,

It took me a while to actually decide to write to you. (You should've left a phone number, but I guess it's better this way, for now). Your letter, well, it sort of shocked me; we never expected to hear from you again after your getaway from the hospital.

And I won't hesitate to tell you, you hurt us, a lot, especially Dawn. She never even saw your daughter, Buffy. She's very upset with you, but she tries to hide it... You ran away from us again. I can't say I don't understand you, I do; I wanted to run when Max was born, but I held it in, I didn't scare Anya or you. I knew you were going to be there for us, and we would've been there for you, if you would've just let us.

I didn't realize this until you were gone, but you were the only one still keeping us together.

In other times, when you left, we stuck together, even closer than before... But those times disappeared. Now everyone went their own way. We have to move on and even if you hurt us when you left and we missed and we still miss you a lot, it was a push forward, one we delayed too long. Now, not all the roads lead to Sunnydale anymore.

Willow left first, around six months ago. She's in New York and she's doing great, she's rising up in the world, real fast. She was always a whiz. More than anything, now, I'm happy she got over her dark times and magic. She was up here in Chicago, to visit us, just last week. She's dating this model in her early twenties. She's cute

and funny. You'd like her.

Then Dawn left for LA and UCLA, she's really happy there. She lives on campus and has 2 roommates, and I think she's even dating someone. She finished her first year with big grades; she's smart, she always was. She's spending her summer down in Florida with one of her roommates, and later on she's heading for New Orleans with a big bunch of her friends. I visit her sometimes, though I don't get to go to LA too often. Will, on the other hand, she travels a lot, but she doesn't always have time; she's real busy.

We moved last, the day I got your letter, around two months ago. I got this contract in Chicago from a big company. You know the one I had to build an office building in Sunnydale for? Seems they really liked the way I work so they offered me this contract, but it was in Chicago, so we had to move. Anya's three months pregnant. I wonder what it's going to be... but I won't spoil my surprise, whatever it's going to be we're going to love it. Max can walk and talk now. He's so cute. You should come down to see us sometimes.

Fatima... that's a beautiful name. I'm glad you found a purpose for your slayer powers, one that's useful in your new life. About the Magic Box, we sold it. I know Giles would've wanted us to split the money, so your part is still waiting in a bank account. As for Dawnie, the money you saved was enough to pay for college.

We met the new slayer, a darling girl, Mireille. She's from France, Dijon I think, she was here to kill a big demon. Cute, smart; you'd like her, she's the perfect French version of you. Already giving her watcher a hard time, has friends, maybe she'll make it. I hope she will.

We still love you, and I'd like it if we'd talk. Our phone number is 555-2894. Call me, Buff.

Like always, love,

Xander"

Buffy put down the letter. Things had changed, and the Sunnydale vampire killing clique didn't exist anymore. She pulled from the envelope a picture and a small article. The article had the title 'Young executive director takes Manhattan for a spin,' and a smaller title under it 'A fresh new start for Computer Corporations NY.' Even lower, a small picture of Willow. She smiled and looked at the picture. Xander was standing on a big swing, holding a small boy in his arms, Max, and by his side, resting her head on his shoulder, Anya, a few months pregnant. Buffy sighed, and leaned down on the couch. Her biggest worry now was Dawn.

_Fall 2006_

She walked nervously in the park, waiting for her sister to arrive. Over the past few months she had tried to retie the old legacies, and she had mostly done it. With Xander and Anya it wasn't a problem, they were happy she was back in their lives sometimes, visiting. Max and Fatima liked each other, even if Max was older than her by almost a year.

With Willow it was harder. Even if she didn't seem to be bothered that she was back, Buffy could feel her resentment sometimes, and she felt sorry she had ever left. She didn't manage to run across Dawn, who was gone all summer, and Xander thought it was better to tell her in person that she was back.

She sighed and sat down on a bench, hoping her sister would be able to forgive her. Only then she noticed the tall girl walking calmly towards her. She seemed so different from the last time Buffy had seen her, even if nothing had actually changed in her appearance. Dawn sat down next to her sister.

"Hi," Buffy said, looking up from the ground.

"Hi," Dawn said. She had never expected to see her sister again. She'd thought Buffy had left for good, even if she wasn't dead this time. There was a long moment of silence.

"So...uh, you like college?" Buffy asked.

"Yeah, it's fun, it's safe. Actually the safest I've ever felt in my life. And that means a lot, cause they're into some wild stuff around here," Dawn said, turning her head towards her.

"Wild stuff?" Buffy arched an eyebrow.

"Oh, yeah, I'm in this sorority, the Alpha Omega and my boyfriend is in this other fraternity, the Delta Pi and we're going from one party to another, every night. It's crazy and some of these people are insane, in a good way," Dawn said, she liked her student life. "And they drink, and they get high some times and they're like..."

"But you don't..." Buffy stopped her.

"No! Well, I drink sometimes, but not in a getting wasted kind of way. Though there was this one time I entered in a beer drinking contest. Last time I tried that, I didn't know where I was walking and I wound up throwing up on Mrs. Reganald's rose bushes. She's one of my professors. The bitchest professor."

"Okay..." Buffy said, a little shocked.

"But that's so over with," Dawn said, and after a moment of thinking about it she added, looking up again: "Yeah, college's good. The professors are pretty good too, some of them are actually cool, if you wanna believe that."

"And you have a boyfriend?" Buffy asked, wanting to know every little detail about her sister's life while she'd been away; she wanted to be close to her again.

"Oh, yeah, Mike, we've been hanging on for almost a year, I can't believe it's been so long," Dawn said and sighed, looking up at the sky. "And how is she? Fatima, was it?"

"She's good, almost a year old," Buffy said. "I wanted to bring her, but she's under a year old, not safe on a plane. I'm living in..."

"San Francisco. Xander told me" Dawn interrupted her.

"You talked to him?" Xander had told her he never found her.

"Yeah, don't be mad at him. I asked him to...tell you he couldn't find me. I just needed a little time, you know? It's hard to think of you as being here again. Will's been paying my bills for a while, she's my cousin, if anyone asks" Dawn said, looking up. "It's been hard, Buffy, I wanted you around, for everything. I wanted to ask my friends over for Thanksgiving, but I realized there was no home to go back to, I don't have a family anymore, all I am is this, the UCLA college girl, and you wouldn't believe how good it feels to belong somewhere again. For me, it's bliss. And I don't know where I'll belong after I finish here, but I'll find a place, somewhere."

Buffy looked down, trying not to show her pain.

"But...it would feel good, to have a home to go back to, if something would go wrong. Yeah, I'd like that."

"Dawnie, I'm so sorry!" Buffy said, trying to hold back her sobs.

"Oh, god, Buffy," Dawn hugged her sister, tears falling down her face.

"I'm so sorry. I'm sorry," Buffy repeated, hugging her closer.

"I missed you" Dawn whispered, while her eyes closed. They were a family again.

End Part 2


	4. Part 3

**Part 3**

_2002-2008_

_In the image of the Angel Investigations detective agency_

_December, 2004_

He stood by his car, leaning on it, waiting for the big iron gates to open, a cold winter wind blowing outside, snow beginning to fall slowly. He liked it, the frozen snow flakes landing gently on his shoulders and on his face, not melting as they would on any other being. No, it didn't melt, for he was already cold. A small smile crossed his lips as he looked up at the clouded sky. Another reason he liked it; it was day and he could walk free.

He had driven a long way to get to this prison. Faith had been moved in the fall of 2003 when the prison back in LA had some major damage to recover from, in part, thanks to him and Faith, since they had stopped a half-demon shaman from feeding on the youth and violence of the inmates. It had been quite a battle, and though she'd had more than one chance to escape, Faith went back freely, cause she had to serve her time, as she put it. And now, after 4 years from her incarceration, she was paroled to the city of Los Angeles, under the custody of Kate Lockley, freshly returned to the forces, after almost two years of wondering.

Suddenly, with a loud screech, the iron gates opened and, between the foot-high snow banks, Faith, rogue slayer, vicious killer, stepped out, seeming, surprisingly, the purest she had ever been in her existence. She stopped two feet away from him and closed her eyes.

"Can you feel it?" she asked, her eyes still closed.

"What?" Angel asked, standing up from the car.

"Freedom" Faith smiled and opened her eyes, the snow flakes falling gently in a delirious dance around her.

"Yeah" Angel gave her a small smile. He wanted to put the hood up.

"Don't," Faith said, touching his hand.

"Okay." He opened the door to the front seat and let her get in. He got in too, and began driving down the highway, the snow flakes floating around them.

"God, I still can't believe it! I'm free! I'm still waiting for this to be a dream, and soon someone's gonna shake me out of it!" Faith said, smiling.

"It's not a dream, I froze my ass off waiting for you!" Angel said, happy she was feeling good.

"Thought vampires can't feel cold, since they're already dead and everything."

"Okay, so I lied," Angel said, and Faith smiled again.

"Can't wait to get back to the chase. You know, demons, vampires, just throw 'em my way. Only evil evil things included," Faith assured him. "Promise. Slayer's honor."

"I don't know if that counts anymore, since they fired you," Angel reminded her.

"Yeah, I don't work for them anymore, but nothing can take these powers away from me!" Faith said. "I'm still a slayer waiting for action. But this time I'm the good slayer." She stopped for a moment before asking: "How's B?"

"She's good, she died three years ago. And then she came back. Willow found this resurrection spell." Angel gave a few details.

"Just like her, to come back, even after she's dead." Faith shrugged. There was a moment of silence. "You didn't hear from her in a long time, right?"

"Yeah, we have different lives now," Angel told her.

"It's funny, it's like I've been the one man audience of the Buffy/Angel show from when I first arrived. It's just seeing it all change so radically, it's weird. And I wasn't even there for the half of it. Wonder how Cordelia dealt with it," Faith said, deciding to end the subject. "So, is this hotel big?"

"Huge. 100 rooms." Angel gave her a weary smile. "Yours is on the first floor, next to mine."

"Really? So who else is livin' there?" she asked.

"Gunn has a place, sometimes, but mostly it'll be you and me. And Fred," Angel remembered.

"Uh, is he cute?" Faith asked, joking.

"Yes, she is," Angel said and Faith laughed. "She disappeared into another dimension for five years, and when we got her back, she didn't have a place to live."

"So you offered a room. That is so like you," Faith said. "So you like her?"

"We're just good friends, she works with us," Angel assured her.

"Oh" Faith simply said, and she closed her eyes again, letting the wind blow in her face, and the snow flakes mix in her long messy black hair. She was, finally, free.

_4 months later_

The front door shut behind them, leaving them alone in the hotel. It had been a long, hard battle to fight, but they had fought it and won. Now, tired and dirty, smudged with blood and mud, they breathed easily, while the rain fell down over Los Angeles, cleaning its streets, the people unaware of how close their world had come to destruction that very night. Angel put down his ax and sat down, numb.

He still couldn't believe they had won and saved the world. They had been way too many, and for once he'd thought they were going to lose, and die, but no, things had gone differently... They were all wounded, but nothing serious; a broken arm for Wesley, a broken leg and a bad cold for Fred, who was currently in the hospital, a few broken ribs for Gunn, and a dislocated shoulder for Faith who had taken care of it herself.

Only he and Cordelia were left untouched, except for a few cuts and bruises, but only because Angel was a vampire of course, and in stead of falling off the platform like everyone else, Cordelia floated off. The big, powerful demon was dead, over with, turned into a big mass of green flesh that was washed out into the sewers by the rain.

"I can't believe we did it!" Faith gave voice to his thoughts.

"Yeah, I was already seeing tombstones," Angel admitted as he threw his duster onto a chair and threw himself into the armchair.

"I know what you mean," Faith said, and suddenly she began laughing, relived they had made it out of it alive. "I still can't believe it!"

"When he was up there, with the knife at Fred's throat, I thought that was it, we have to give up, but then she...she just jumped off the platform... and..." the hysterical laughter caught him too.

"Yeah, it's just fucking amazing," Faith said, sitting down on the arm of the armchair.

"If I was human, I'd be getting seriously drunk right now," Angel told her.

"Yeah, me too, but it's one of the things I decided to skip in my new happy existence," she said. "But you know, living like a nun, it hasn't paid off... Look who I'm talking to about this. I think you are the only person, who I know, who hasn't had sex in a long, long, long, time..."

"Longer than Cordelia?" Angel asked.

"What exactly do you think she's up to with Gunn at this hour? And if we are talking about them, cute how they discovered their attraction when we were about to die. Besides, that drama guy, she totally did him."

"Really? I'm sure I would've smelled it," Angel said.

"Don't freak me out with that stuff!" Faith told him before he could continue.

"Wesley?" Angel tried.

"Pharmacist. And I think the librarian..." Faith thought about it for a moment.

"No, not yet. Fred?" Angel continued.

"Harvard graduate. Just two months ago," she reminded him of a lawyer that had helped them out on an important case.

"Oh, I know. Kate" Angel said.

"Sorry, there's a new sergeant and they were all over each other last time I saw her," Faith told him. "See. I told you so."

"You?" Angel tried one last time, knowing he was going to win.

"What, you mean that one time when you were human? Cordy told me about that. But that was before I even woke up from the coma," Faith reminded him.

"I didn't mean that time," Angel said, laughing. "You see turns out I lose my soul only if I love the woman I'm having sex with."

"What's that suppose to mean?" Faith asked, confused.

"Cordy didn't say anything? There's a big surprise," Angel said. "Hmmm... must've been too upset by it. I thought she'd bitch about it forever though."

"So are ya' gonna keep me in suspense forever?" Faith asked, smiling, curious.

"You know, when Darla came back? After she turned, I slept with her, that's how I had my epiphany. Actually, it was mostly because of a dead lawyer, but anyway," Angel said, and Faith began laughing.

"You did it, didn't you? You really did it! You slept..." He put his finger on her lips when she was about to yell it out loud.

"Don't say it… I think I heard that yelled one too many times," he whispered, his hand caressing her cheek. "Don't say it," he repeated, his thumb caressing her lower lip, tracing it. His gaze concentrated on her full red lips, now lipstick free. Faith watched him, her lips parting a bit, then, caught in the magic of the moment, she leaned over and kissed him, a simple touch of their lips. When she realized what she was doing she pulled away and looked down, embarrassed.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. She didn't expect Angel to pull her back in for another kiss, this time a long, deep, sensual one. "We shouldn't..." she pulled away for a moment, breathing hard.

"I won't lose my soul," he reminded her.

"I want this. I want you," Faith said, looking him in the eye. She moved into his lap, kissing him. He pulled her shirt over her head, leaving her half-naked above him. He pulled away for a moment, to look at her. "What's wrong?" she asked, fearing he had changed his mind and she was making a fool of herself.

"Nothing, I was just looking at you. You're beautiful," he said before he kissed her again, pulling her body flush against his. She blushed, she'd never gotten a compliment like that from a guy. His hands pressed against the lower part of her back, pressing her harder into him, as he continued to kiss her, her hands losing themselves in his black hair.

When she woke up, naked in his bed, still numb and a tingling feeling running through her body, Angel wasn't there anymore. She could remember falling asleep in his arms, while his gentle hands caressed her, but she didn't recall when he left.

Frankly, she didn't care; she knew this was a one timer, but she was happy she had done it, it felt good and right. He had done for her what no other guy had; he had made love to her. She stretched out in the big bed, feeling good, so good, that she was alive after last night's battle. The sun shone behind the heavy curtains; it was a good day. She got up, holding the sheet to her body as she made her way to the kitchen, humming a song. She opened the freezer and found nothing very good, just some orange juice. She poured herself a glass before noticing the box full of donuts on the table.

"Mmmm, breakfast" she said smiling and pulling a donut from the box, while she put the glass of orange juice on the table. She was facing away from the kitchen door. She didn't expect to hear the high pitched scream that came from there, startling her so much she almost dropped the sheet from her body, the donut managing to slip from her fingers and to land first on the sheet, smudging it with chocolate, then on the kitchen floor. She turned around to see Wesley and Cordelia staring at her.

"Tell me you just didn't do what I think you did" Cordy said, touching her forehead.

"Oh, no, you know I just love to run around naked," Faith said, realizing that she actually did, remembering her hot nights spent back in New Orleans.

"Geez, Faith! Don't you care about anything? Like our lives?" Cordy asked her.

"Of course I do. Nothing's gonna happen cause..." she said.

"Because his curse's going to magically reappear in its place," Wesley was also pissed that she had been thinking only of herself, not about everyone she jeopardized with her actions.

"He's good, okay? Just trust me for once," Faith told them, getting a little pissed herself. How dare they threat her like that? She would never do anything that would hurt them or Angel, not after they'd been so good to her for the last few months.

"Oh, yeah? Then where is he?" Cordy asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"He's..." she stopped, realizing she didn't know where he was.

"God, Faith!" Wesley let out.

"Geez, he can get to any of us," Cordy realized.

"Yeah, probably," Angel said, walking into the kitchen. Cordy froze, her back turned towards him. "But you know, I was thinking. Maybe the LA night life is much more... tasteful than any of you," he said. Cordy could feel his lips an inch away from her neck, and she could almost feel the words forming on his lips. "But then again I said heck, it's tradition," a grin formed on his lips as he looked up at Faith, who was looking desperate. "Have I mentioned how grateful I am? Honey, you're the best!" he told her, blocking the frying pan Wesley tried to hit him with. "I thought hell, she won't do, and soulboy's just gonna get some. Again!" He stressed that word looking over at Cordelia for a moment. "And that's that, but the funniest thing is..." he chuckled. "How the most wretched people turn out to be useful after all. Promise to kill you fast, after a few hours of torture, of course. That's necessary, you know."

Then, before he could block it, Cordelia grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed him in the shoulder. Before she could hit him again, he turned around violently, his game face on, raising her off the ground and then throwing her into the opposite wall, while Wesley desperately tried to free her from his grasp. Faith was frozen into place, what she had done, her actions, destroying her from inside out.

Angelus grabbed Wesley by the collar of his shirt, throwing him into the window, his shirt shredded under his strength. Glass fell onto the floor with a crashing sound as Wesley's body hit it. He tried to rise, but he fell back, numb, while Cordelia stood up, her body shaking. Angelus looked at them.

"Tsk, tsk..." he sighed. "Well, this was fun, but we'll have to reschedule our little reunion. I'm feeling a little peckish," Angelus sent Faith a butterfly kiss from his fingers before waltzing out, humming a song. Faith tried to stood up, absolutely shocked, before she collapsed to the floor, crying.

"I... I... I...didn't...I didn't know," Faith said, sobbing violently as she crouched next to the wall, holding her knees under her chin, rocking her body forward.

Cordy managed to walk over to Wesley, sustaining herself on the wall. She pulled him inside. He had cuts all over his body from the glass, but luckily nothing very serious. He held up his palm, a glass piece sticking out of it. Cordy looked desperately at it for a moment before pulling it out. Wesley let out a gasp. He and Cordy shared a worried look before turning their heads towards Faith, who was still crying.

Wesley stood up, supported by Cordy, and they walked towards her, sitting down by her side.

"Angel. Sex. Two words that don't belong in the same sentence," Cordy said, in a softer, gentler voice.

"No...no...you don't get it...he..." Faith tried to speak through the sobs.

"What are you talking about?" Wesley asked.

"He...doesn't lose his...soul...unless, unless..." Faith tried to gather herself. "Unless he...loves..."

"Like he loved Buffy" Cordy said, realizing what Faith meant. "The lousy son of a bitch!" Cordy exploded, suddenly angry. "Now he just uses women for sex? I so thought he was different from any other guy, you know, not being a pig!"

"Hey," Wesley managed to let out a small protest. "But surely he didn't…"

"He probably did," Cordy said sighing.

"What are you talking about?" Faith looked up, her face red because of the tears she'd shed.

"Angel told you about Darla, right?" Cordy asked and Faith gave her a small nod. "I never said anything to you about the whole Darla incident so you wouldn't get the wrong idea, which you did… Darla was meant to be and…," Cordy said.

"Darla was meant to be?" Faith asked.

"She got pregnant. Had a son. There was this whole seed of evil prophecy and… we don't really like to mention it… it was a tough call" Cordy explained.

"That's who Connor is," Faith understood now. She had heard the name Connor spoken a couple of times and the name brought with it only arguing and silence.

"Yeah," Cordy admitted, she would've eventually find out anyway. "It's okay, it's not your fault. We don't even know how that curse of his works," Cordy stopped to hug her.

"What does it all mean?" Wesley asked while Faith crushed Cordelia's body in her arms.

"I can't breathe?" Cordy said her voice choking.

"What?" Wesley looked at her, not understanding.

"I can't breathe!" Cordy managed to let out.

"Uh, sorry." Faith let go of her, wiping away her tears with the back of her hand, while Cordy drew in a big breath of air.

"It's okay" Cordy whispered.

"So, again, what does it all mean?" Wesley asked again.

"We all need to get our apartments and the hotel, vampire invitation free?" Cordy suggested. "Wait, does this mean Angel loves you?" she turned towards Faith.

"No, I don't know, I don't think so..." Faith said thinking about last night and the morning's events.

"If he does, he has a disturbingly kinky taste for slayers. He might actually enjoy the pain," Cordy said, making Faith smile.

"Wait." Faith suddenly remembered. "It wasn't love, it just felt right."

"Felt right, does that count as a happy?" Cordy looked at Wesley.

"Well I suppose..." Wesley started, but was cut off by Faith.

"No, you don't get it. The fight...it just made things so clear for once! How easy the world can just go to hell in an instant and the next minute everything can be back to normal. Just makes you wonder what you'd miss if that moment came again, unexpected, killing you for good this time. It just felt so right, like if I'd die, I'd regret never even trying to kiss him or love him. We always had this thing, but since he saved my soul, we never actually talked about it. It felt right," she repeated.

"I think I sorta know what you mean," Cordy said, thinking of her sudden awareness of Gunn.

"Oh, god, we forgot about the others!" Wesley suddenly remembered about Fred, who was defenseless in the hospital, under drugs, Kate and Gunn who had no protection from Angelus.

"Gunn!" Cordy suddenly said. "Gunn. I left him at my apartment."

"And what was he doing at your apartment?" Wesley asked, stopping, even now, to tease her. Faith hit him with her elbow, playfully. "Ow!"

"Oh, sorry! Geez!" Faith noticed the long, deep cut in his palm, still bleeding.

She ripped off a part of the sheet covering her, and carefully bandaged his wound. "He won't be using them any time soon." She gestured towards the sheets.

"Thanks." Wesley gave her a small smile.

"You are so going to the hospital," Cordy told him.

"No, I'm fine, really!" Wesley tried to assure them, but as soon as he moved, he winced in pain.

"You're going to the hospital. You can look over Fred too. Tell her what's going on, if she's awake. I'll go get Gunn and you go talk to Kate. Then we'll find that spell thing and get us, at least, inside, safe, okay?" Cordy asked.

"Yes, can you get me in a cab?" Wesley asked weakly.

"Yeah, sure...Faith..." she turned towards the slayer, who wasn't looking so good. "You okay?"

"Yeah, excuse me, I need to go vomit. Must've swallowed some demon goo when it exploded," Faith said, standing up and dragging the sheets behind her in the bathroom. Cordy and Wesley could hear the gagging sounds from outside.

_1 month later_

"At least I got out of it with a lousy little bite, thanks to you guys," Cordy told Wes, Fred and Gunn, as she analyzed the two holes on her neck.

"You said it, one more minute and hello, vampy Cordelia!" Fred said, laughing nervously, while holding on to her crutches. Her leg wasn't quite healed yet, mainly thanks to a little bit of Angelus's torture.

"We were beyond lucky," Wes said while he took another sip of coffee. He was wearing a patch over his eye, a little gift from Angelus, the wound in his palm being only a big scar now.

"I should've just got out of town like Kate, from the start," Cordy said, knowing she could've never done it. "But, you know, I love you guys and this is our mess."

"I second that," Gunn said, smiling, and the rest agreed by nodding. The front door opened and Faith came in, looking disturbed.

"Hey, girl, you okay?" Gunn asked, seeing how pale she was.

"What did the doctor say?" Fred asked, worried.

"It's not some kind of terminal disease, is it?" Cordy asked. They all knew what troubles she had been going through for the last month, always vomiting, feeling sick all the time.

"Is it Angelus? Did he do something?" Wesley asked, trying to get a word out of her.

Faith didn't answer. She just sat down, still silent, on a chair.

"Faith, what's wrong?" Cordy asked again. The slayer seemed mesmerized.

"I'm... I'm pregnant." Faith barely let it out. They were all shocked.

"So...uhm...who's the father?" Wesley asked, breaking the silence.

"Angel," Faith said, and they all stared at her.

"Angel can't..." Cordy started. "What's the point of even saying it?" she shook her head.

"But he's still a vampire! Vampires can't have babies. And besides it only happened once… Okay twice, if we count this time too," Fred reminded them.

"Yeah, I think Darla's still fresh in everyone's memories," Gunn asked bringing back a rather uncomfortable subject, not even speaking the name of Angel's first son.

"That was different. Two vampires. One prophecy. People knew about that baby before Angel even existed," Wesley reminded him.

"And this is like a pop-out surprise," Cordy said sighing. "Are you sure it's him?"

"Yeah. I didn't screw around with anyone else. And I'm around one month pregnant and that's when we had sex," Faith finished. She was as stunned as them.

"Geez!" Gunn let out, adding after a moment: "Is this like a congratulations occasion?"

"Oh, yeah, the father of my baby is a psycho killer, congrats!" Faith said, giving him a glare. She was close to breaking down, but something inside her stopped her, a simple thought, 'what about the baby?'

"Guess not," Gunn said, regretting his words.

"Oh, no, sorry..." Faith didn't want to upset him. "I'm just moody."

"At least you have an excuse," Cordy said, trying to make her smile.

"I think I'm going to keep this baby," Faith announced.

"It's your choice, Faith, and only yours," Wesley told her, comforting her.

"I know Angel would love it, if he wouldn't be his charming evil self momentarily," Fred told her.

"But first things first, I wanna know why I can have this baby, and I wanna be sure it's his," Faith told them and they understood, already moving into research mode.

"Found it. Kautaris Powizer," Cordy pointed towards a paragraph of the book she was reading. It was close to dawn. They were tired. The research hadn't gone too well until now. They tried looking for vampire resurrection, prophecies that included half-human/half-demon or vampire children, but they didn't find any clue, so eventually they returned to the demon they had fought that night. They didn't find a name for it back then, everything moving too fast, so they didn't even have time for research. "Well this explains everything. It was something like a fertility/war god, demon thingy. In plain English, he could make anyone in a ten block radius have babies just by hanging around for five minutes. Imagine what happens if it's five hours... Also the process is quicker in the beginning, probably why you were throwing up the morning after," Cordy explained.

"Does this mean my baby's growing faster?" Faith asked.

"No, just the initial process is installed faster," Cordy said.

"Okay, so my baby's normal? It's Angel's?" Faith asked.

"Yeah," Cordy assured her.

"Thank god! For a moment there I thought you were the mother of the second coming!" Wesley said, joking.

"I'm gonna have a baby! I'm gonna be a mother!" It seemed to only hit Faith now. "Ahhh!"

"We're gonna have a baby. This is gonna change us radically!" Cordy said and added an enthusiastic: "Again!"

"One thing I don't get," Fred said. "You and Gunn were getting off too, how come, no baby?"

"We used protection," Gunn said.

"Which you wouldn't be thinking of, if you're sleeping with a dead person, a.k.a. a vampire," Cordy said.

"Oh, right," Fred remembered.

"What about Angelus?" Wesley asked, reducing everyone to silence.

"Recursing might be an option," Cordy said, stating the obvious. "Anyone think we should call Sunnydale?

"You think we should?" Faith asked hesitantly. She didn't want Buffy to know what had happened, she knew she would blame her for what she did, even if it wasn't all her fault.

"I guess. We can't not…" Fred said, sensing her feelings. She knew pretty much everything about the blond slayer, her history with Angel and Faith.

"But we don't necessarily have to tell them," Cordy said and everyone looked at her. "Watch." She picked up the phone and dialed Willow's phone number.

"Hi, this is the Rosenbergs." The friendly voice of the redhead was heard.

"Hi, Will. It's Cordy," she said, responding with the same cheerful voice. "So what's new in Sunnydale?"

"Nothing and everything" Willow said, surprised she had called. "Is something wrong?"

"No! We were just thinking and we realized we don't even have Angel's curse. Which would be a seriously stupid thing. You know, just in case. You use to have it around, right?"

"Oh, god, haven't thought about it in ages..." Willow said thinking back to where exactly it might be. "I know I had a copy somewhere, I printed it for the spell, but I think it burned when the library exploded. I put it inside a book. There was the diskette. I have to have it around here…" she moved around her room, looking through the drawers and the stacks of old diskettes. "Somewhere..." she let out while she looked at each diskette. Finally, she found it, the word 'curse' written with black on it and underlined. "Got it!"

"Great!" Cordy smiled, covering the phone so Willow wouldn't hear for a moment. "She found it!" Everyone was relieved.

"Cordy, Cordy, are you still there?" she heard Willow's voice.

"Yeah, still here" Cordy said uncovering the phone.

"I think it's damaged" Willow said, looking at the file on her computer. It had blanks and scrambled words.

"Could you fix it?" Cordy asked, the hope floating in the room suddenly disappearing.

"I don't know. I don't think so, it's very old, it has to be around 6 years old, even more. It's unlikely it'll recover, maybe it'll become even more damaged, but I'll give it a try," Willow said while she looked over the file again.

"Thanks. Bye!" Cordy said, her cheerful voice fading.

"Bye..." Willow said before hanging up.

"It's no good, the diskette, it's damaged," Cordy told them.

"So what now? We can't kill him," Gunn said. "You all know we can't."

"I can find the curse, I'm sure I can. And...and I'll translate it. It's going to be hard, but I'll do my best!" Wesley said.

"We know you will," Fred said, smiling at him.

"Great, now all we have to do is stay alive long enough!" Cordy said and everyone agreed.

_2 months later_

Wesley seemed possessed. He would sit in front of the computer 24 hours/day, not ungluing himself, not even to eat. He would've starved himself to death, as Cordy put it, if they didn't bring him food. They all greatly appreciated his efforts, while they themselves tried, meanwhile, to deal with Angelus, who always found a new way to torture them. He was very inventive in that department.

It was late, past midnight, a hard rain falling down over Los Angeles. The front door opened and Cordelia came in, followed closely by Gunn, both soaked to the bone. Wesley was talking on the phone with someone.

"He has her," Cordy said, throwing herself in a chair.

"Who?" Wesley stopped his conversation on the phone for a second.

"Faith!" Gunn let out. "Angelus and his fang gang attacked us when we were coming back from the store. We managed to dust half, but it was all a distraction so he could take her."

"Oh, lord" Wesley closed his eyes for a moment. "No, no, not you!" he told the man on the phone. "Yes, I still...of course, yes, yes, I'll do that...Send it, please. No, right now, it's an emergency. Thank you, I'm in your debt for life. Yes, I'll stand by," he said and put the phone down. Wesley sat down, sighing.

"We have to get her back," Cordy said, staring blankly at the ceiling. There was a loud beep, before the fax machine started to print in the silence of the room.

"We have the curse. Translated," Wesley stated, satisfied with himself.

"Could this be a better moment?" Cordy seemed to be relieved. "We recurse him before he gets to kill her. Wes, you're the man!" Cordy hugged him.

"How'd you do it?" Gunn asked, curious.

"Let's just say we owe a considerable amount of money to a gypsy in Romania," Wesley told them as he pulled the sheet of paper containing the precious curse from the fax. "We have to work fast."

"We'll hit the magic shop, we just need a list" Gunn said, while Wesley began to write down the ingredients.

"Let's go!" Cordy took the list from Wesley's hand and headed for the door.

"You know, I've always thought about this... Not very inventive, actually old fashioned, but what the heck I'm an old fashioned guy. Besides, I always pictured you like this," Angelus told Faith. She was chained to a wall in the sewers. He picked up a small knife in his hand. "Any words before we start?

"I..." Faith tried to speak.

"Well, so much about that. And might I add, most beautiful speech I ever heard. Bravo!" Angelus said, a grin playing on his lips. "Now, how do you like it, small little cuts, or big nasty wounds? I'm for the little cuts, hurts a hell of a lot more..."

"I'm pregnant," Faith managed to mutter.

"Well, well, hasn't someone been busy!" Angelus said, taken a bit by surprise. "So who's the lucky guy? You know, just for the record, who do I tell about taking his baby apart, piece by piece?"

"You leave my baby out of this!" Faith yelled, looking into his cold brown eyes.

"Now, how am I supposed to do that? Wait nine months?" Angelus smiled. "Is it the ex-watcher?"

"You idiot, it's you!" Faith yelled and Angelus laughed.

"Yes, because I can have kids. Look at me, the regular baby farm!" Angelus laughed. "Let me fill you in on something, one of the perks of being dead, no babies."

"Oh, yeah, smart guy, what about Darla?" Faith asked and he stopped for a moment, thinking, tapping the knife on his lips.

"Ancient prophecy, slutty slayer. I really don't see it," he said after a moment. "But that reminds me…I have a disobedient little brat I have to track down and teach a little lesson about his daddy. Now where were we?"

"Listen, that thing we killed, it was a fertility... Why am I telling you this?" Faith asked, tired.

"Your inner need to bore me to death?" Angelus asked, coming closer to her, pressing the blade of the knife to her cheek. "You use to be a fun girl, Faith, we could've eviscerated people together, wreak a little havoc, before I got bored and threw you out a window...but what the hell right? I'll just show everyone your insides, probably your baby too. Always wanted to see how one looked, still in the womb," he said, taking the knife lower to her stomach. "I can hear a heartbeat, it's so tiny and small," he taunted her, making a cross across her stomach, preparing to stab her, to take the life of her baby.

"No!" Faith yelled desperately, trying to pull away from him.

"C'mon, Faith, you really thought you could be a good mother? Geez, you're not even a good enough lay... You know who that makes me think of? Buff, but she was like an innocent little twit. But you know what the difference between you and her is? Besides the 5 inches, black hair, moral standards and the fact that you're a vicious killer and she's the angel of mercy? The fact that she turns me on. All she had to do was flip her hair in that cute way she did and I'd be halfway coming. And she didn't even try. I would've fucked her half way to hell, but you… I wouldn't even try again... Talking about Buffy..." he took a step back. "I think I should pay her a visit. Nothing big, you know, kill a few friends, drive her insane, maybe track down a few old boyfriends, hang them in her back yard. That's gonna be so much fun! I'm just sorry you and the yuppie group aren't going to be around to enjoy it," He neared her again, making a long cut along her left cheek, then licking the blood that was dripping from the open wound.

Suddenly a sharp pain coursed through his body and he fell to his knees in front of her, clutching the knife in his hand. A yellow glow filled his eyes as he looked up at Faith, bloody red tears falling down his face. "Faith?" he muttered, not remembering anything he had said or done for the last months, it was like a mist had enveloped his mind, a mist that would clear real soon. He closed his eyes, realizing what had happened. He was crying when Faith managed to break free from her chains. "I'm sorry," he managed to say, while she looked down at him, on his knees in front of her, in the dirt.

"It's okay," she whispered, as his hands surrounded her and he pressed his head to her stomach, her hands caressing his soft hair. "It's okay."

He suddenly realized what he was hearing: a small, oh, so small, sweet heartbeat inside her. "Faith?"

"Yeah," she said as he rose to his feet and hugged her close, before they both started walking out of the sewers.

Faith was looking out the window, unconsciously touching her womb. She didn't hear Angel enter the room. He had recovered his soul only a week ago and he couldn't stop himself from trying to make it up to each of them. It had cost him, an expensive shopping session with Cordelia, a night at the Opera with Fred, a rare book collection for Wesley, a serious repair on Gunn's old beaten car. He just couldn't think of anything that could make up for what he had said and done to Faith, but he had to try.

"Hey," he smiled when she turned around.

"Hey" she said turning back towards the window.

"I'm sorry for everything I...he said to you" Angel said, gently hugging her from behind.

"It's okay, it wasn't your fault," Faith said, leaning back into his arms.

"In a strange way it was; maybe we should've never..."

"No, I think it was right." Faith cut him off.

"You were amazing, I never got to tell you that. And never believe what he says, he knows what makes you hurt," Angel said, feeling awkward talking about himself as a third person.

"So do you," she said, biting her lower lip.

"Yes, I guess I do. And don't ever believe you won't be a good mother. I know you will. This is my baby too, and I promise I'll be there for you, the both of you."

"Thank you," she whispered.

"There's nothing to thank me for. Not yet, anyway. I have a surprise," he told her.

"What?" she asked, curious.

"Follow me." He grabbed her hand and pulled her out of her room and into the hallway. He stopped in front of a door, opened it and pulled Faith inside.

"Hmmm, your apartment," Faith said, not understanding what he was doing.

"No, not yet." He covered her eyes as he led her to another room. Faith heard a door open, and then he took his hands off her eyes. She stared in surprise. "Well? You like it? If you don't we can..."

"I love it!" She smiled, looking at the baby room, filled with toys and clothes. She hugged him tight.

"Cordy fixed it up, I just..." Angel said while Faith looked at every little thing in the room, taking the little clothes in her hands; they were so small. "You can still buy things, you can go with Cordy, she sorta knows the shops inside out by now."

"But why is it in your apartment?" Faith asked.

"I thought we should at least...uhm...live together. For the baby," Angel said, hoping she didn't think he was out of line. They both knew there wasn't going to be anything more between them than friendship.

"Oh, okay," Faith said; there was no harm in that.

_Around 6 months later_

Faith ran down the hallways of the abandoned hospital. She wasn't as fast as usual, thanks to her pregnancy. The demons weren't very far behind her, she could feel it. She closed one of the doors and pulled a table in front of it. Then she remembered that hospital doors opened both ways, especially those in the hallways. "Damn!" she let out before starting to run again. She was already breathing hard and she feared her water would break any moment. She was wearing a hospital gown that one of the demons had probably put her in. She was still a little woozy from the drugs, the image getting blurry from time to time as she ran. She slid around the corner, almost falling on the cold marble, as she was in her bare feet. She got herself together and leaned on the wall.

She heard sounds from behind her and desperate, she hid inside an operation room. Suddenly her water broke. "Oh, shit!" she let out as she moved to a dark corner of the room and crouched down. "You are not coming out right now!" she told her baby, but the contractions had already started and all she could do was wince in pain. She heard the sounds of struggle outside and she held her breath for a moment. Then she realized they were fighting someone. The door to the room opened and Wesley rushed in, holding an ax in his hands, smudged with blood.

"Faith?" he asked in the darkness.

"Here" she managed to say before another contraction coursed through her body.

"Are you okay?" he asked, coming to her side. "We have to get you out of here."

"We can't. My water broke," Faith said, another contraction hitting her body.

"Oh god!" Wesley didn't know what to do.

"How'd you find me, anyway?" she asked, trying to distract herself from the pain. "Tell me," she said through her teeth.

"Uhm...Hold my hand," Wesley said, fearing she'd crush it. "And breathe." Faith began to do her Lamaze breathing. "Jonah's vampires took you, so Cordy looked up all his proprieties and we checked out the most likely and eventually got here and ...ahhhhh!" he screamed when Faith almost broke his hand.

"Sorry, I'll just hold on to this," she said grabbing the iron leg of an operation table.

"I should...we should...you should lay on your back," he said, standing up and looking for anything resembling material; nothing. "Maybe you should get on the table." He helped her up and onto the table. She leaned down. "I saw this on TV, I know I can do this. Why did I volunteer to come? I should've let...Bend your knees," he eventually said. "Spread your legs."

"Never thought I'd hear that from you," Faith said, and Wes gave her a glare. "Okay, okay!" She spread her legs.

"Try not to bend the leg of the table, okay?" Wesley cautioned her; he knew slayers and their strength. Someone was thrown into the wall outside the room, making Wesley turn his head momentarily.

"Hello, back to me!" Faith groaned.

"Oh, sorry!" Wesley turned back to her. He took his jacket off and put it under her. "Okay, now push...It's going to be a long night!" he said, looking back at the door and back at Faith.

"One more push, and you're done. C'mon!" Wesley encouraged an exhausted Faith. Angel had flown in at a certain point, holding a bloody axe in his hand. All he managed to say was a short 'hi' and a sweet smile towards Faith, before he got up and went out again. Now, sweaty and tired, Faith gave one final push and closed her eyes when she heard the screams of her baby.

"It's a boy," Wesley said, holding the blood smudged child in his hands. He cut the child's connection to his mother before laying him in his jacket and bringing him to Faith's awaiting arms.

"Congratulations" he said, smiling at them.

"He's so tiny!" Faith said, feeling such a sweet bliss inside her, unknown to her till now. "It's my baby," she said kissing the little boy on the forehead. The next minute the commotion outside stopped and Angel came in, followed by Gunn, Cordy and Fred, all spent from the long battle. Angel moved to Faith, kneeling by her side. "It's our baby, our son" she told him and he enveloped her and his son in his arms, smiling.

"He's beautiful," he told her, pressing a soft kiss on her forehead and one on his son's small cheek. "Like you," he added. Faith snuggled to his chest, still holding the baby to hers.

"Congrats, you guys!" Cordy told them, smiling.

"Thought of a name?" Gunn asked.

"I always liked Wesley. Sounds distinctive," Faith said, and Wesley was flattered.

"Really you shouldn't..." Wesley started.

"No, I want to, really, I always loved the name," Faith said. "If it's okay with you?" She looked up at Angel.

"Yeah, I like it," Angel said while the little boy encircled his finger with his tiny ones. "Let's get you out of here." He took Faith in his arms. She leaned her head on his shoulder and she held the baby to her chest, close to her heart.

"Can babies have four godparents?" Faith asked as they left the white room, the slaughtered demons and the abandoned hospital behind them.

_Around 3 years later_

"And who might you be?" the teacher looked strangely at Gunn, who was standing in her kindergarten, looking for little Wesley.

"I'm Gunn, I'm Wesley's godfather," he said, full of confidence. "And if you don't mind, we're sorta in a hurry. We're missing from the godmother's play. And we promised his daddy we'll be there."

"You're not his godfather. I've met his godfather, a young British gentleman," she said, looking at him.

"Yeah, Wesley senior. Listen, lady, I don't have time on my hands. That Wesley," he pointed towards the little boy playing in the background, "has four godparents, okay? And one of 'em's gonna be very pissed if I don't catch this play. Wesley!"

"Guuuuuuuuuuuunn!" the boy came running into his arms.

"Now if you'll excuse us, we have a play to catch. We're going to go see aunt Cordy, right, Wes?" he looked at the boy in his arms.

"Aunt Coudy!" Wesley said cheerfully.

"Cor-dy," Gunn corrected him.

"Cordy" Wesley repeated.

"Very good!" Gunn said. "Good-bye," he told the teacher before going out.

"So sorry for being late" Cordy said, putting down her bag. She sighed as she looked at her watch. "I don't have much time, so talk."

"Yes..." the teacher looked at her, puzzled.

"What's wrong?" Cordy asked, looking at herself, for a stain or something wrong. Everything was perfect.

"Where's Wesley's mother?" the teacher asked.

"She couldn't make it. I'm one of the godmothers, Cordelia Chase. Faith's fi...uhm...visiting some old friends, a funeral, she couldn't not go," Cordy said a big smile on her lips.

"Oh, I'm sorry. And you didn't know this recently departed friend?" the teacher asked.

"No, Faith's old friends..." Cordy said.

"From prison?" the teacher asked, surprising Cordy.

"No," Cordy said, her smile fading.

"You do know she went to prison for murder, don't you?" the teacher asked.

"Yeah, but that's water under the bridge. And she turned herself in," Cordy told her, not liking where everything was going.

"I have to be honest with you, miss Chase, it's miss, no?" Cordy nodded. "I'm worried about little Wesley's health. Living around someone with a..." she read from a file. "Psychotic behavior. Unpredictable actions, violent outbreaks."

"Well, you seem to have documented yourself," Cordy said, sensing she would have a violent outbreak if the woman continued.

"We care for the children that frequent our school, miss Chase. Just yesterday Wesley came here with a very ugly bruise on his hand..."

"That had nothing to do with Faith!" Cordy yelled. She knew where that bruise came from, a very unfortunate demon who wanted to use Wesley as a shield to escape the hotel with a rare book. The idiot was now shredded into a million pieces and probably food for the rats somewhere in the sewers. If there was one thing that drove both Angel and Faith, and all of them, insane, it was someone trying to harm little Wes. Luckily demons started to learn.

"Prove me wrong," Mrs. Hatmer said, putting her glasses down. "You know what he told me? He told me a demon grabbed him by the arm and dragged him to a dark room. But then his daddy saved him."

"That's what happened...sorta...we work a detective agency, Mrs. Hatmer, sometimes people aren't happy about it and they try to hurt us. Two days ago a man broke in and wanted to steal some...photos we took of him. When we caught him, he threatened Wesley. End of story."

"Then this is too much of a dangerous..."

"We're capable of defending ourselves and Wesley, Mrs. Hatmer. You take care of him while he's in your care. Good-bye." Cordy stood up and walked out, a victorious smile on her lips.

The music was hit high, while Cordy danced her way over to the bucket, her hair wrapped in a scarf, wearing old jeans and shirt. They were cleaning up after the restoring of the hotel. It had been repainted, the floors polished, rugs cleaned, the works. Gunn was up on a ladder trying to put the chandelier back in place. Wesley was rearranging the books in the bookcases. Fred was cleaning the windows, Angel and Lorne were desperately trying to manage with the carpets in the hallways and Faith had uncovered the front desk and was now cleaning the paint stains that had accidentally appeared. It was their home now, all except Lorne's; he was just helping out. Little Wesley was perched up on the front desk, watching everyone work.

"Listen to that music!" Lorne said, coming into the lobby, dancing. "You like it, don't you?" he asked little Wesley and the boy nodded happily. Lorne never scared him. The demon took the little boy in his arms and started spinning and dancing, to the child's delight.

Mrs. Hatmer chose this moment to enter. She stared at them, especially at Lorne. Cordy turned down the music and the demon sensed something was wrong, so he stopped his dancing, still holding Wesley to his chest.

"Can we help you?" Gunn asked from the ladder.

"What is that thing?" Mrs. Hatmer pointed towards Lorne.

"Hello, I'm Lorne. This is a mask," the demon said, already use to this explanation.

"And you wear that around a small child? It might give him nightmares!" the woman said, seeming exasperated.

"Hey, Wes, do I scare you?" Lorne asked the little boy.

"No, uncle Lorne" the little boy said shaking his head. "Lorne's our friend!" he told the teacher.

"I see," Mrs. Hatmer said. "I really think this isn't the kind of environment and people a boy Wesley's age should be living with," she told Angel.

"What makes you think that?" Angel asked.

"One thing, your wife..." Mrs. Hatmer gestured towards Faith.

"She's not my wife," Angel said and the woman seemed shocked.

"But..." she started.

"We were never married and never gave you the impression that we were," Faith told her.

The woman sighed. "Then it would be easier... I fear his mother might be a bad influence. Violence is not a good factor in the growth of a child, neither is the presence of such an environment and circle of people. For one thing, someone who had been missing for five years," she looked at Fred, "doing god knows what. Someone who had been living on the streets," she looked at Gunn. "An immigrant," she looked at Wesley, "who probably isn't even legally here. A self-centered conceited 'actress'" she looked at Cordy. "A freak in the real sense!" she looked at Lorne. "And with all this a murderer." She looked at Faith. They all stared at her for a moment. "You have to understand your mistakes, sir."

"Well, we're changing kindergartens," Faith said.

"Heard the one two blocks down is excellent," Angel agreed with her.

"Oh, and they have this extra art class," Fred said, grabbing her cloth again.

"The boy does love to draw," Gunn said.

"Just like his daddy" Faith said proudly.

"I could actually pick him up on my way back from my acting classes," Cordy said, smiling.

"And they do have that huge playground," Wesley agreed.

Mrs. Hatmer looked at them, shocked.

"Room for him to play, right, kiddo?" Lorne said and little Wesley clapped his hands, liking the idea.

"I can call Social Security!" Mrs. Hatmer said, and they suddenly stopped talking.

"You just try that, lady," Faith said. "Nothing's going to take my baby away from me. From us all."

"We'll just find another town. Another country if you're willing to go that far, but no one's taking him away from us," Angel said.

"And you know what? We might be a bunch of freaks, but we're all the family he has and we love him. And if you think that's bad for him, you're the one who's insane here!" Faith told the woman.

"You're all mad!" Mrs. Hatmer said. "You don't know what this child needs..."

"No. You don't know what I need," little Wesley suddenly said. Mrs. Hatmer stared at the boy for a moment then at all of them, before leaving.

"Well so much for that," Wesley said.

"Are we ever going to find a kindergarten that doesn't butt in?" Faith asked, sighing.

"We'll just have to find out. I'll pick up an application on Monday for the one two blocks from here," Angel told her, as Cordy turned up the music and Lorne starting to dance with Wesley in his arms again. Everyone got back to their cleaning.

"I see no problem here. We have a few gifted children of our own," the woman said, smiling.

What they could've never guessed was that there was actually a kindergarten for 'special' children, usually half-demons, abandoned by their demonic next of kin into the arms of the human ones.

"Cool!" Faith could only say. "And you don't mind that I...uhm…was in prison?"

"Oh, we don't judge anyone. You seem a perfectly normal person. And believe me, I've seen my take of big weirdoes," the young woman said. "And you're not one of them." She stopped for a moment before continuing. "When you see someone turn to dust in front of you, when you're 12, it sorta gets you somewhere. For me it was stranger, cause all I could do is think of all the babies that were in the way of the 'big battle'. I think it had something to do with the murder of this really young girl, the one who did the dusting. I just wanted to explain myself, so you don't become suspicious of me," she told them.

"It's all right with us. You have no idea how much trouble we had with the kindergartens. They just couldn't stay out of our lives," Faith said.

"I understand. One thing though, I care about my kids, and if I find out that you or anyone befriended with you hurts your son, I'll have to take the necessary steps," the woman said.

"Social Security?" Angel asked calmly, and the woman let out a small laugh.

"Oh, no, they do squat, I have my own way of taking care of things," she said, hinting towards something including a lot of pain.

"We have absolutely no problem with that," Faith said, determined.

"Good. Just sign here." She handed Faith a form. Faith and Angel signed it.

"Thank you. You can bring Wesley starting tomorrow," the woman said, smiling. "Anything wrong, don't hesitate to call." She handed Angel a calling card.

_2 days ago_

Cordy hurried through the park; she had 10 minutes to get to her acting class. She was determined to become a good actress, not a commercial one. She had taken a short cut through the park. As she speeded up, she accidentally bumped into a girl carrying books in her arms. The girl's books scattered all over the ground.

"Oh, god, I'm so sorry!" Cordy immediately said, helping her gather her books. She looked up at the girl; she seemed so familiar. "I'm sorry, do I know you?"

The girl looked up only then and was shocked to see Cordelia.

"Cordy? It's Dawn!" the girl said, smiling.

"Dawn? Little Dawnie?" Cordy asked, surprised.

"Not so little anymore," she said, smiling. Cordy hugged her.

"God, I can't believe it. What are you doing in LA anyway?" Cordy said, breaking away from her.

"College. I'm at the UCLA" Dawn said.

"That's great. Congratulations!" Cordy smiled, and then looked at her watch. "Oh, god, I have to go, but..." she opened her bag looking for something. She pulled a card out. "Here, look us up some time, I'd love to chat some more."

"I'll do that, it was great seeing you again," Dawn said as she took the card. "Bye."

"Bye." Cordy walked away fast. Dawn stood there for a moment, looking over the books at the small white card.

"Angel Investigations. We help the helpless." She read the card, a smile on her lips. She put the card in her bag and walked away.

End Part 3


	5. Part 4

**Part 4**

"_Destiny envelopes you, like silken binds, caressing, then pulling and sucking the life from your veins, choking your spirit. Destiny is greatness and death."_

"Nothing, absolutely nothing!" Gunn said, dropping a book on the table. "You sure that's all you know?" He looked towards Buffy.

"Yeah... I mean, I can't remember anything else that would be important," Buffy said.

"Could you tell us what happened, from the beginning to the end?" Wesley asked, putting down his book.

"Okay. I was in the kitchen making her some cocoa and...and she was playing in the living room with her stuffed bear. George gave it to me; I thought it was her right to have it. The wind was blowing outside, harder than usual. I didn't hear anything. When I went back into the living room and she was gone, I called out to her. I didn't get an answer; I went into the other room to see if she wasn't watching TV, and then upstairs. She was nowhere to be found. I began to panic. I screamed her name, and then I heard the wind blowing harder outside, and the willows tugging at the windows, and I realized she could be outside. I went out and then I saw the backyard; it was endless, leading up a hill and into a forest of some kind. And up on the hill, I saw a child. I thought it was Fatima. I ran towards her, but as I neared her I realized it wasn't Fatima. Her skin was so white, even transparent at some point. She had curly blond hair and these creepy blue eyes, they glowed... and, standing in front her, I had this uneasy feeling... I asked her who she was and she shook her head and said 'No'. And that's when her shape shifted and she asked 'who are you?' I asked her where Fatima was and she stared at me for a moment before walking off. I yelled 'wait!' but then the hill disappeared and I was in front of the fence," Buffy finished.

"Why would she ask you who you are?" Angel asked. "If she kidnapped your daughter…Fatima, she knew who you were."

"I don't know. I don't think that's the way she put the question," Buffy said, tilting her head slightly, tired.

"Then in what way?" Cordy asked, distracted from her laptop.

"It was like she knew who I was, as a slayer, and now that I'm no longer one, she didn't know who I am anymore," Buffy said. She had been thinking about it a long time. "And she expected me to know who she was, but I can't place her anywhere! I've been thinking everything over, analyzing, remembering every demon I've ever faced or met, but she's just not there. The black girl, she seemed familiar, but I've never ever met her; it's like someone told me about her."

"Maybe she was killed in an accident and someone told you about her?" Wesley tried.

"No, it…can't be. Her clothes screamed not of this millenium. '70-'80 maybe," Buffy said, shaking her head.

"Wow, way back there," Faith said. "At least if we had like a city or something, but I doubt we'd track her down. Murder's pretty common, in big cities especially. It would help if it was a smaller town."

"We're not talking about Sunnydale, are we?" Cordy asked.

"I don't think so," Buffy said, trying to remember.

"Good. Trying to track down an unknown murder in Sunnydale is like looking for a needle in a haystack," Cordy said. "We've sorta been there."

"Oh, yeah. Real ugly business too." Gunn remembered one of their cases. "Especially when the fate of the world depended on that one dead body."

"Most horrifying…actually almost the most horrifying thing we've been through," Wesley added.

"Took us a good few weeks too," Fred said, trying to hold back a yawn.

"Sleepy?" Angel asked, a small smile on his face.

"A bit." She gave him a lazy smile and leaned her head on his shoulder. Buffy followed the scene with a certain jealousy. It was obvious who Angel had a crush on.

"Try to focus." Angel turned towards Buffy. "I can show you a concentration exercise. Maybe it'll come to you like that," he added. "I can only imagine how worried you must be." He gave her a sympathetic smile.

"You can do it in my room," Fred told Angel before raising her chin from his shoulder. "It has this extra mystic energy point. Helps with concentration. And sleep," she added, smiling.

"Thanks," Buffy said while Angel took her hand and guided her upstairs.

"Don't forget the yucky herbs!" Cordy yelled after them. "Only way the damn thing works."

"I regret I just offered my room. It takes around a week to get the stench out!" Fred said, burying her face in a pillow.

"I'm just happy he didn't flip, with the pipes and all," Gunn said looking up from the book.

Cordy turned from the computer to smile at him. "Well you have this whole sweet-adorable thing going on, I told you. You could convince me to jump off the roof with that look," Cordy said coming closer to him.

"Really?" Gunn asked, taking her in his arms.

"Yeah" Cordy said, her lips coming closer to his.

"But then I'd have to jump off too," Gunn said giving her a light kiss. Fred rolled her eyes at this point.

"Why?" Cordy asked, smiling.

"Cause I couldn't live without you," Gunn said and leaned down to kiss her, but suddenly three pillows hit them at the same time.

"Oh, stop being so mushy and adorable!" Faith told them, giggling. Wesley chuckled from behind his book; he seemed not to have moved, when actually he had thrown a pillow from a chair nearby.

"Please, you're in front of a crowd of emotionally desperate people!" Fred added, joining in the laughter. "Look at us: I'm slobbering over a vampire, she has a thing for the local drama cop and he's still mourning over the pharmacist who dumped him for France."

"You're right, you guys are pathetic," Cordy said, obviously joking. A storm of pillows flew at them.

"Hey, hey!" Cordy said trying to block them.

"Quick, say something mean, then we'll have all the pillows and we can strike back properly!" Gunn said in a funny tone, making Cordy laugh. "Oh, hell with it!" He changed his mind and began throwing the pillows back at them. Cordy joined in, laughing.

"Okay, now breathe," Angel told her as she gracefully lowered her hands to her chest. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor. He began tracing a circle with the black, sand-like herbs around her.

"Geez, what's that smell?" Buffy asked, opening her eyes.

"Concentrate!" Angel reminded her as he lit a match.

"Okay, now I'm getting freaked," Buffy said, opening her eyes again. He touched the match to the herbs and in an instant a circle of fire surrounded the slayer. "What's going on?" she asked, a little terrified.

"Don't worry, the flames aren't really there," Angel told her.

"Easy for you to say!" she said, trying not to touch the red flames.

"It's not here. The fire. It's in another plane of existence. This is just a shadow," he added, passing his hand through the flames. "You really think I'd stand this close to a fire?"

"Great, so you just made a circle of fire in another dimension. I think the people are already bowing to the miracle," Buffy said, extending her hands again.

"Now, touch the flame." She lowered her hands by her sides, her fingertips caressing the savage fire. He was right, it didn't burn. "I'll be downstairs if you need me," he added standing up. She couldn't hear him anymore. He left the room silently.

He climbed downstairs to find feathers spread on the floor and pillows thrown everywhere.

"I can't leave you people alone for 2 minutes!" he said, shaking his head. "I knew these pillows were a bad idea," he added to himself, lifting one from the floor.

"Hey, we were just punishing them for being so cute in front of emotionally disastrous people," Fred said, smiling.

Angel gently took some feathers from her hair. She smiled at him. There was a moment of silence.

"Just clean up a little." Angel broke the silence. "We have a guest for god's sakes!"

She was in a deep trance, her body moving without her knowledge in front and back, her hands painting imaginary, strange symbols in the fire. Her life seemed to flash backwards the more she concentrated; back to the moment she was told of the black girl. The speed was overwhelming. She saw all her life, from the moment she had walked into the Angel Investigations Office, to the night of Fatima's disappearance, back to her days in Sunnydale, George and the scoobies… she remembered now with astonishing clarity the thrill of the chase, the kill. It seemed at the same time something so strange to her… and to her surprise she flashed back even further, before her death, even before her mother's death.

Then shadows started playing in front of her. They seemed like they were dancing delicately, when they were actually fighting, or gesturing a fight. It was a back alley and she was standing there, with her arms crossed over her chest. She realized her eyes were closed and she asked herself why she had closed them, why had she been thinking of a baby girl at that moment. She didn't know anyone named Fatima. And why of all people would she be thinking of Angel? And Faith? Especially since in front of her, telling his stories, was Spike.

"The stress getting to you?" he asked, giving her a cocky winning smile.

"Just go on," she said, rubbing her temples. She felt she had to remember something, but she just couldn't place it; it was on the tip of her tongue, yet she had no idea what was so important that her mind was churning and hurting.

"All right, then," Spike said, beginning to move, recreating his fight with the slayer from the past. "The first was all business, but the second, she had a touch of your style." He mimed a blow to her head. "She was cunning, resourceful... oh, did I mention? Hot. I could have danced all night with that one."

"What are you talking about?" Buffy asked, and Spike stopped dead in his tracks.

"What's wrong? Can't keep up?" The words rang in her head bringing back not-too-pretty memories.

"I thought you and me are done. No more sex, no more love. Do you think I forgot what you did to me? To Dawn? You're suppose to get out of town by sundown, remember?" her head was pulsating like it was going to explode.

"What the bloody hell are you talking about?" Spike asked, confused.

"Didn't you…hear me…" The world started to spin.

"Buffy…you okay? Buffy?" He came closer to her, helping her stand on her feet. But the world spun too much and suddenly she remembered everything…

"Spike!" That was the answer. And as she screamed the name she abruptly woke up, sweaty and shaking in the hotel room, the bitter smell of burned herbs surrounding her. The fire was out. Quickly, the sound of footsteps came from outside. The door swung open and Angel came in.

"You okay?" Angel asked, helping her up.

"Yeah, yeah… I know who told me," she said, making her way towards the door. Angel didn't move. "Are you coming?"

"Just a moment" Angel gave her a smile, before turning and opening a window and kneeling down next to the burnt rug, passing his hand over the ash. It disappeared instantaneously. "Little trick I picked up along the way," he explained before following her out the door. "So, who was it?"

"Spike. He…" she started.

"Spike? He did mentioned something about living in Sunnydale when he was here," Angel said, surprising Buffy.

"Spike was here?" she asked, a bad feeling passing through the pit of her stomach.

"Oh, yeah… He freeloaded around here for half a year," he said. "I sorta felt sorry for him. He seemed destroyed. I assumed it was because of his soul. I was like that after I got it. He didn't want to discuss it."

"How strange," she said, knowing all too well why the vampire had been depressed. "So what happened, why did he leave?"

"I don't know. I never really understood him. He was always the weird one. Always having to prove himself something," Angel said. "One night he was just sitting on the roof and when I went up, he suddenly says he misses home. It was really dark, but I noticed he was crying. I never saw him cry before."

"Must've been weird for you," Buffy said, remembering, with astonishing clarity, when Spike had wept at her feet because she was banishing him from Sunnydale.

"Before he left he apologized to me. I never really understood what for," Angel said as they finally made it downstairs.

"Well?" Cordy asked. They had cleaned up the mess of pillows, and little Wesley was up, eating at the low table, his bowl of cereal put on a piece of carton.

"It was Spike," she said, and the group seemed surprised.

"There's one name I haven't heard in a while," Gunn said. "So who's the wonder girl?"

"One of the two slayers he killed," Buffy said. "One was in 1900 and Chinese, so I doubt it was her. That leaves us with the 1977 slayer…I think she was black… he killed her in a subway. Could you look that up?" She turned towards Cordelia.

"As we speak," Cordy said, not raising her eyes from the computer.

"So, we're dealing with the ghost of a slayer," Wesley said, and sighed. "But what about the little girl?"

"Maybe their murders had something in common, same city, maybe in the same year, even day" Fred suggested.

"I'll look into that," Cordy said. A page displayed on her computer. "Here we go… 17 year old Meredith Banks, found murdered in New York subway…" she began reading between the lines. "Her neck was broken. This her?" she asked turning the computer towards Buffy.

"That's her" Buffy said looking at the girl laying dead in the subway, her neck twisted.

"I'll check for dead kids," Cordy said turning towards the computer. The little boy didn't even flinch at the hearing of the word dead.

"Can I see uncle Lorne tonight?" little Wesley asked turning towards Faith.

"Sure, honey" Faith said caressing his brown hair and placing a kiss on his forehead.

"Really?" the little boy smiled.

"If you'll be a good boy today," Faith said.

"I will. Promise," he said before turning back to his cereals.

"Who's Lorne?" Buffy asked, sitting down next to Faith.

"Oh, he's a friend of ours. Owns a karaoke bar. For demons," Faith added.

"Nothing!" Cordy said. "There were no kidnappings, crimes that involve children in any way that day. Just a few accidents. Nothing big, the only consequence probably being a lot of therapy."

"Try year," Angel suggested.

"Are you sure that's what it is?" Buffy asked.

"It can be. All the people this thing shifts into have to have something in common. Since age isn't the case, maybe it's the date or year and…" Wesley started to explain.

"Any idea what age she could've been?" Cordy interrupted.

"Around ten. I don't even know how I could confuse her with Fatima. Probably I just wanted it to be her," Buffy said.

"So as I was saying… Disaster has a great impact on human souls, so when the flesh and bone persona is killed the spirit has a great shock and it becomes disoriented. And some spirits actually melt together when they find some kind of familiarity in each other. Now for this to be the case, they'd have to be at close range. Which would mean the girl must be from the same city as the slayer," Wesley finished.

"Guys, I think we'll have to narrow it down," Cordy said.

"I'm just gonna' take Wes to kindergarten," Faith said, standing up. Her son had finished eating and was now waiting for her to say something.

"Take care," Angel said, handing her the car keys and pressing a small kiss to her lips – a friendship kiss . He took his son in his arms and hugged him. "And you be a good boy. And don't tease Marcus. It's not his fault his father had horns."

"I won't," Wes promised.

"Love you," Angel told him sweetly.

"Love you too," The little boy smiled and took Faith's hand. "Bye, guys!" he told the others.

"Bye, Wes," everyone said. Faith, holding her son by the hand, headed for the door. The little boy turned halfway out the door.

"Oh, and bye, Buffy!" The little boy smiled and headed out.

"Bye," Buffy let out; something in the way he had spoken her name disturbed her.

"So we need to narrow them down. How?" Gunn asked.

"Well we either find more things in common with the dead slayer or Buffy looks at 562 pictures of dead girls," Cordy said. "And there are some articles without pictures too."

"What else can they have in common?" Wesley asked, pacing.

"The way they were killed?" Fred suggested.

"Or who they were killed by," Wesley suggested, looking up.

"Spike's victims?" Buffy asked, and Wesley nodded.

"Try to find… bite marks, low blood, draining, or brutal killings," Angel said, thinking of Spike's habits of killing.

"That leaves us with 109 cases," Cordy said, tapping on her computer.

"Now cut out the ones with no identified killer, " Gunn said, looking over her shoulder at the laptop.

"That leaves us with 34," Cordy said.

"I can take a look at the pictures," Buffy said, sitting next to Cordy at the computer.

"Tell me if any of these seem familiar," Cordy told her as she began showing her the pictures. There was a long silence until Buffy finished looking at the pictures. Wesley had walked towards the bookshelves looking for a certain book.

"Well?" Gunn asked first.

"Nothing," Buffy said, looking surprised.

"Maybe we passed over her in the cutting?" Cordy suggested.

"Or maybe it's something else," Fred said. "These kind of spirits haunt their crime scenes forever. Just think about it. What would they be doing in San Francisco?"

"Or at least haunt the killer. Last time I saw Spike he didn't seem to be haunted by anyone. Just incredibly drunk!" Gunn added.

"Good point," Angel agreed. "So what else could it be?"

"A-ha!" They all turned towards Wesley. "Pardon me," the English man said, clearing his throat.

"Well?" Angel asked, awaiting an answer.

"When Buffy described the little girl… and the fact that the other girl was a slayer… it got me thinking… I remembered it from somewhere. The little girl I mean. Then it just hit me." He pointed towards the book he was holding. "Watcher's diaries!" He came closer to them, putting the open book on the table in front of Buffy. "Regina Faircastle. She was a slayer in the 15th century."

"How could she be a slayer? She was way too young," Buffy said, looking at a small portrait of the girl. It was truly the ghost that had kidnapped her daughter.

"Actually, the youngest" Wesley said.

"What do you mean?" Angel asked, looking at the young girl in the book.

"She was the youngest slayer to ever be called. She was 9 years and 6 months old. Her parents died in a plague," Wesley explained. "I remembered her because she was one of the particular cases that had a certain difference from the others."

"What happened to her?" Buffy asked, touching the picture in the book.

"She was killed less then a year after her calling. A demon nest. After her death, the Council decided to never pick slayers underdeveloped," Wes continued. "Too small."

"Always like the council to decide after it's too late," Buffy said bitterly.

"Two slayers," Gunn concluded. "What do they want with a third?"

"Maybe they want a new addition to their duo?" Cordy suggested.

"Well, if they want a fight, they're gonna' get one!" Buffy said, looking up from the book.

"There's the Buffy we all know and love!" Cordy said, smiling.

"Okay, problem. I'm more than a little rusty. I sorta need a little practice. Help?" Buffy asked, looking towards them.

"Yeah, we have this whole practice room arranged in the basement," Gunn said, he was quite proud of their little demon-slaying gym.

"It's equipped. Even I have to practice, now and then, just so I don't get killed. I miss the days Angel use to play trainer, Faith is way to hard on us!" Cordy said cheerfully. And after a moment of silence, she added, "Don't worry, we'll find her."

"It has to show up at some point. This thing has a personal problem with you. And when it does show, we'll be here to send it straight back to wherever the hell it came from!" Gunn said confidently.

"Thanks for the support, guys," Buffy said.

"It'll show," Fred repeated, trying to comfort her.

"But until then I'm afraid we're stuck," Wesley said. "We know what it is, but spirits don't have a particular place to exist. So until they act we can't do anything but hope nothing bad's going to happen to your daughter."

"Don't even say that!" Buffy's voice trembled. "I should go find a hotel," she added after taking a deep breath.

"Like Faith said, you can stay here," Angel suggested. "It's not good to be alone. The ghosts could attack anytime. And besides, you need a friend right now."

"There's always someone here. Anything happens, just scream," Gunn told her.

"Why do you think it's after me?" Buffy suddenly asked.

"If it's slayers, it probably has something to do with your slayer-being or your non-slayer-being," Faith said, coming closer. She had been listening to them for a while. "A sister slayer quitting? It's like kicking tradition in the ass. Like you're dancing on their graves or somethin'. That or they're just jealous that you could quit and they couldn't."

"So they would be angry because they think Buffy mocked them by quitting slaying?" Wesley asked.

"Yeah, what you said," Faith nodded.

"I didn't want to mock or dance on anyone's grave… I just wanted to keep my daughter safe. How do you explain that to a ghost?" Buffy asked.

"We'll just see what happens" Angel said. "Meanwhile we'll find a spell for ghosts."

"We could use the one we used on old man Johnson's place," Gunn suggested.

"Wait. Didn't that explode in our faces?" Faith asked, remembering the case.

"Technically. We just had to pay a cleaning bill," Wesley remembered. "There was a considerable amount of green…"

"Goo?" Cordy tried.

"Try not to make it messy," Angel quivered just at the thought of the incident. "I think we'll have enough paying to do thanks to your 'experiment' on the water pipes."

"You are so cheap," Cordy said, exasperated.

"Because I don't want my house covered in green slime?" Angel asked.

"Good point." Cordy gave up. "But the way you put it… it sounds more like you were thinking of the money before the slime."

"Hey, I have a college education to think of now," Angel said, sounding like a concerned parent.

"Now you have an excuse to be cheap," Gunn said smiling.

"Hey, my baby is not an excuse to be cheap!" Faith protested. "As a matter of fact, I love his daddy just the way he is!" she said, giving Angel a protective wife-like look. "Even if he is cheap," she added, sending Angel a butterfly kiss and making Fred giggle.

"All right, I got it. I'm cheap, and you're not, when it comes to my money. End of story," Angel said, putting his hands up in surrender. "Do you have anything to do, to pass the time?" he turned towards Buffy.

"I think I'm going to go see Dawn," Buffy said, taking in a big breath of air.

"You want me to walk you?" Angel asked.

"No, I'll be okay" Buffy said shaking her head.

"All right, but if anything happens you call us immediately," Angel told her.

"Yeah, we have a few cases to work on now, but we'll come running, okay?" Gunn said, and Buffy nodded.

"Can I please go to the bathroom?" Little Wesley raised his hand.

"Of course. You want me to come with you?" the teacher asked, and the little boy shook his head.

"I know where it is," Wesley said, and got up. He wasn't really going to the bathroom; he had just got the strangest feeling he had to walk out of that room, like something or someone, who only he could hear, was calling him. He hesitated at the door.

"Are you all right, Wesley?" the teacher asked, seeing him stop.

"Yes," he said, before taking one more step and going outside into the hallway. It was pretty dark. That's why most children preferred to be accompanied to the bathroom. This particular kindergarten was a small establishment, probably thanks to its 'special' clientele, located on the first floor of an old house. Wesley began walking down the dark corridor. He'd never feared the darkness. He'd never understood why, but he thought it was because his father always lived in darkness. He didn't quite understand what a vampire was; it was just clear to him that his daddy was different and he had to drink blood to survive. The boy saw nothing wrong in that.

The hallway was empty. No one was there, but he could've sworn he had heard a calling from outside. Not his name, just a hummed song. He advanced and then he heard it. The slow, soft humming coming from further down. He went a little farther, and in the darkness a little light began to shine, as the echo of the humming became clearer. Then the shadowy form of a wooden bench appeared, and on it a little girl was sitting, looking absently at the floor, swinging her feet as she hummed the song.

"Hi," Wesley said, not sure where he knew her from. She rose her head and looked at him. She was his age.

"Hi," she said, a little smile on her lips.

"Your mother's looking for you," he said, not moving from his spot, as though hypnotized.

"I know," she said, looking back down at the floor before adding, "the lady told me."

"What lady?" he asked, and the girl looked up at him again, seeming confused that he didn't know.

"The slayer lady, of course!" she said, surprised that he didn't share her knowledge.

"Slayer? My mom's a slayer," he said, not understanding her.

"So is mine… she use to be," the little girl said, and looked back at the dark corridor behind her. To Wesley it looked endless, but he knew that only two feet away there was the bathroom door.

"She's calling me. I have to go." She stood up from the bench, which evaporated behind her, swallowed by the darkness. "Tell my mom not to worry. The lady takes care of me."

"Fatima…" a ghostly voice called from the darkness. The little girl turned from Wesley and walked away, taking the light with her. For a moment Wesley spotted the shape of a primal girl. The light disappeared, leaving him in the darkness.

"Wait…" he said, as if he had suddenly woken up from a dream. But the ghosts couldn't hear him anymore, and neither could the blond little girl enveloped in them. He stood there, staring blankly at the bathroom door that had appeared in front of him.

End Part 4


	6. Part 5

**Part 5**

_"Time has past, new times have come,  
Suns set down on many worlds  
Full moons scattered into eternities of bliss  
But past seems to envelop me, and only me  
And as I stand, space and time pass by me,  
Beside me,  
I standalone and quiver.  
I, foolish child of forgotten ages."  
_

She stood in front of the door, hesitating. The hard beat of a stereo was coming from inside. The corridors were full of students, talking, going to classes, lovers, friends... The atmosphere was so familiar to her, still so vivid in her mind. She still yearned for it and she wished she could turn back time, turn it back so long that she would reach her happy little existence. She found herself asking a very peculiar question: 'Was I ever happy?' 'I was happy when I found heaven' a little voice whispered in her ear. She snapped out of her torturing thoughts and knocked on the door. There was a shout inside by an unfamiliar voice "Pizza's here! Cecile, move your ass!". There was no movement made inside. "Cecile! Now! Don't make me come outta this bathroom!", then a stumbling sound, followed by footsteps towards the door. It opened, the noisy music filling the corridor, and a blonde was standing in the doorway, with half a head bigger then her, wearing a pair of headphones around her neck.

"Not the pizza guy!" she yelled back in the room before turning back towards Buffy. "Can I help you?"

"Is Dawn around? I'm her big sister, Buffy" she told her.

"Oh, right, she said you'd come. Come in" the blonde said, letting her in and closing the door behind her. "I'm Cecile."

"Where is she?" Buffy asked, not hearing much because of the music. The room was a mess of colors, posters and all kinds of things. 

"Oh, sorry" Cecile said, turning down the music. "I doubt you heard what I said. So I'm Cecile. And Dawn's..."

"Probably making out with Todd as we speak." A young black girl said, coming out of the bathroom. "Hi, I'm Merry."

"Who's Todd?" Buffy asked, not recalling Dawn mentioning anything. "Wasn't she seeing…uhm…" she tried to remember the name. "Mike?"

"Oh no, that's history. He cheated, don't ask her, she gets real mad." Cecile said, arranging a few loose strands of hair behind her ears. There was another knock on the door. "Pizza!" Merry and Cecile said in unison. Merry opened the door. She was disappointed. It was only Dawn.

"He is so not getting a tip," Merry said, holding the door open for Dawn to come in.

"I'll starve to death until he gets here" Cecile complained.

"This is one time I wish they'd crank-called our room" Merry said sighing.

"Makes you miss the days we raged war against the guys in 250," Cecile agreed with Merry.

"No way! I still appreciate getting to class un-soaked, thank you very much," Dawn dropped her purse on her bed.

"What ever you say, girl" Cecile said before putting her headphones back on. "Tell me when the pizza guy comes. I have a bone to pick with him" she added, before retiring to a corner of the room and starting to practice some tai-chi moves.

"Hey" Dawn noticed Buffy was there.

"Hi" Buffy said.

"So how'd things go with Todd?" Merry asked.

"Super. Give you the full report later" Dawn said smiling.

"Better be a spicy one" Merry said before retiring to her own bed, plugging in a set of headphones to her noisy music and grabbing a book to study from.

"So how did it go? Did you get Fatima back?" Dawn asked, sitting down next to her.

"No. Turns out I have to wait for the ghost to act again" Buffy sighed.

"I'm sorry," Dawn said, laying a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. "They figured out what was after you?"

"Yeah, two ghosts melted into one. Two slayers" she added.

"Slayers?" Dawn asked, intrigued. "How come?"

"Faith thinks..." she started, but was cut off.

"Faith? As in psycho killer Faith?" Dawn asked surprised. "As in Faith who's in jail?"

"Not anymore, she's free and working for Angel Investigations," Buffy said. "Well, she thinks they're mad cause I mocked them when I walked out on slaying. I never meant to."

"I know" Dawn said understanding her.

"So I'm waiting for them to show and tell me what they want." Buffy said, staring blankly at the floor for a moment. Dawn held back the comment 'if they ever will' that had almost escaped her. She didn't want to upset her sister. Strangely, the desperate Buffy reminded her of her sister after her return to the living. Absent, distant, gathered inside herself.

"I'm sure they will," she said instead, trying to comfort her, putting an arm around her and hugging her. "So you saw Angel?" she asked, feeling the need to change the subject, to get her mind off her missing child.

"Yeah. Hasn't changed a bit. In appearance" Buffy said, holding back the tears that had filled her eyes at the thought of her lost baby.

"And otherwise?" she asked. She was torn to see her so destroyed and vulnerable, her big sister, the mighty slayer, that once had given her life for her. She had been all her life, even after she'd left her, her role model. And now she felt so useless because she wasn't able to help her.

"He's... different. He's so open and close to them. They're like a big family. Something that I thought was never going to happen... he's changed" she said looking up, trying to break away from her aching heart and focus on something else. "He and Faith are like best friends. It's all so weird."

"So Angel and Faith are..." Dawn started, but Buffy shook her head. 

"They had something a few years ago... even got Angelus back. And they have baby. A boy." Buffy said and Dawn was shocked. "Something about a fertility demon" she explained.

"Oh my god" Dawn let out. "Cordy didn't say a thing. Then again I only talked to her a minute or so" Dawn remembered.

"He's really cute. His name's Wesley. He's four. Wes, the old one, remember the watcher?" Buffy asked.

"Yeah, the whinny guy. You mentioned something about him working for Angel" Dawn remembered.

"He sorta delivered Faith's baby in a demon nest, that's why they gave him his name." Buffy explained.

"Oh" Dawn understood now. There was a moment of silence.

"Oh, god," the pain was beginning to be overwhelming, a few loose tears running down her cheeks. "I just want this nightmare to be over soon." Dawn hugged her close, tight.

"It's going to be okay. Angel's going to make everything okay" Dawn tried to assure her as she sighed and Buffy pulled away from her arms and wiped away her tears with the sleeve of her shirt. Dawn pulled her legs up on the couch, under her chin. Gathering herself Buffy noticed her state.

"What's wrong?" she asked, trying not to make such a pitiful image to look at.

"I wish I could help you" Dawn said, rising her eyes from the carpet. "But I can't. I don't live on the hellmouth anymore" she said biting her lower lip. "Where I was afraid every moment that my friends would turn into demons over night. Where all it took was one moment of distraction for my boyfriend to suddenly turn into a vampire or a demon or a werewolf" Buffy wanted to say something, but Dawn put up a hand as a sign for her to stop. "And where a cross in my locker, a stake in my backpack and crossbow by my bed were the best policies" a thin smile crossed her face remembering that period of her life. "Where my big sister was the slayer" she added. "I can't go back there. And I'm angry at myself for being so much of a coward. I'm so afraid that if I do help you, I'll have to go back. And I don't want to go back. I feel that if I do, everything I love now is going to disintegrate into nothingness... but I want to help you..." a soft sob stopped her from continuing. 

"Shhh" Buffy put a finger on her lips hugging her. "You don't have to help me. I have enough help. I just want you to be here for me. I love you and nothing's ever gonna change that. You're my little sis. And I know why all this is important to you. Once it was important to me too. And even if you won't believe me, I understand you more then you know. It's hard to break away from something that was a part of you for so long. And I'd know that best. Vampires, demons, the hunt... it was so much a part of me, that at some point that was everything I was. And breaking away... not caring...ignoring... was the hardest and most painful thing I've done in my life. But I did it all for love. For Fatima. And I asked myself so many times 'will one more time matter?' just one time, but I never did, I was too afraid." she confessed.

"I'm sorry" Dawn still felt the need to apologize.

"It's okay, Dawnie, it's okay" she hugged her again. Sitting there, holding her sister in her arms, she felt at home.

"So how was it?" Cordy asked, seeing Buffy coming in the kitchen. "Hot chocolate?" she asked, raising her cup.

"No thanks" Buffy shook her head and sat down at the table.

"Well?" Cordy asked, as she hadn't answered her first question.

"Oh. It was good. Always nice to see her again. It's... comforting" she said, staring at the table for a moment.

"Any word from the ghost bunch?" Cordy asked, taking a sip from her cup.

"Nothing" Buffy said sighing. "I hope they'll show up."

"They will. They don't have any interest in your daughter, just you. Ghosts are twisted like that. Or maybe I'll just get one of those mind-blowing visions," she said, tapping on her temples, she preferred to leave out the fact that she was half-demon, for now. "Why didn't you tell Angel about you and Spike?" she asked, changing the subject abruptly.

"What?" Buffy asked surprised.

"Angel said he told you about Spike being here for a couple of months. I asked him if you mentioned something about Spike's life in Sunnydale. He said you didn't," Cordy said calmly, taking another sip of hot chocolate.

"What was I suppose to say?" Buffy asked, surprised again.

"Oh, I don't know. How about: 'Spike was jumping my bones like crazy back in Sunnyhell'?" Cordy said. "I know it's not exactly the best time right now, and you couldn't tell him straight out today. But c'mon, everybody's been sorta dying to tell him, but no one's really had the guts. Not even Spike, and he hated him. So I was thinking, maybe you could tell him. Now that you're here and everything. Not to be insensitive."

"You know?" Buffy asked looking up at her. Cordy let out a little chuckle.

"Of course we knew. Do you really think Spike would've shut up about it? He was destroyed beyond rational thought. But he never told Angel, I don't know if he would've believed him anyway. He put you up on this high pedestal."

"And you think I have no place being there?" Buffy asked cutting her off, using a harsh tone.

"No, no, that's not what I mean. I think he should know everything there is to know and then he should decide if you still belong there" Cordy said. There was a moment of silence. "You see, we have this whole big family concept going and it's hard to keep something from one another. We're like the Brady Bunch plus a million flaws. And for a moment, even Spike was one of us. If you'd told me that 5 years ago, I would've said get real, but when he came, it was different. He couldn't hurt anyone and he was so destroyed. Angel saw him crying once, I saw him crying more then 10 times in two months. I didn't understand what was wrong with him, he wouldn't tell anyone. Then, one night, I saw him on the roof and I went up. He was drunk and crying. He was a wreck. I asked him what was wrong with him and that's when he told me. He let it all out. About you, Sunnydale, what happened after you came back from the dead, after he got his soul, why he got a soul" she looked up at Buffy. "He felt better after that. He decided to stay for a while, he told Faith about it, he told Gunn and Wesley and even Fred, who he barely knew. He was one of us. Even with Angel. He would tell us stories, keep us up at night, sometimes till dawn" a smile crossed her lips. "Unlike Angel, he liked to talk about his past and the places he'd been to and things he did. Sometimes, even Angel would pitch in with other stories, he didn't feel bad telling them around Spike, 'cause it all seemed natural. Spike made it seem that way. It was fun to have him around. But he left a few months later; he couldn't take it anymore. He wanted to tell him, but he knew any kind of relationship with him would be damaged by it. And when he felt he was about to give in, he left. He went to England" she looked down. "He was loyal to you" she cleared her throat. "He sent us a postcard when he got there" she finished, putting down her cup. She walked over to the freezer; it was full of sticky notes, demon portraits, Wesley's drawings and up, right on the corner, there was a picturesque postcard of London in the winter. She took it, handing it to Buffy.

She looked at it for a moment before turning it to see what was written on the other side.

"You know, they say there's no place like home. It's true, but it's so bloody cold, I can't even feel my hands. Guess I should've waited for spring. At least the pig blood has human taste. Wonder if they combine it. Either that or even my tongue is frozen. Wish I could come back for winter. Spike"

"When did he come here?" Buffy asked. "After he left Sunnydale?"

"No, and thank god he didn't. As I remember that would've been exactly when Angel turned to his gruesome self. He came after Wesley was born. He traveled through the country a bit, went to Mexico, Canada, and couldn't shake off the pain. Then he came to LA. Ran into Angel," Cordy said and took the postcard Buffy had abandoned on the table. She put it back on the freezer. "The postcard, it's from three years ago."

"You haven't heard from him since then?"

"Actually we did. He wrote a few letters. I think he's in some island in the south Pacific right now," Cordy said, coming back to the table. 

"And why did you bring this up now?" Buffy asked, staring at her as she drank from her cup.

"It got your mind off Fatima didn't it?" Cordy said smiling.

"Yeah, it did" Buffy said, realizing her scheme. "So do you do this often?"

"Try getting people's minds off their worries? Yeah, it's like a second layer of skin. It grows on you. I mean you can't expect to work around desperate people, no offense, and not develop some kind of desire to make them feel less miserable. Everybody's got their own gimmick. I got all this gossipy concerto, Gunn has his jokes and puns, Faith has her slaying stories - and those things get your mind off absolutely anything - Fred does her nutty theatre, Wes has this whole demon encyclopedia of weirdness that fascinates everyone and Angel..." she chuckled slightly. "Well Angel has this whole attitude that makes people feel better. You know the 'I've been there, I can help you, I'll work this out, Trust me' routine. It takes one look," she snapped her fingers. "The women usually fall for that one. Wonder why. Oh and if all else fails, we send in the last resort. No one can resist an adorable kid telling you everything's going to be okay" Buffy smiled. "As for my bitching, you know, you and Spike, it's water under the bridge. Like Faith and Angel. Well, mostly, like Angel and any kind of relations he had with women in the last 10 years" Cordy added.

"So he had... uhm... relationships?" Buffy asked surprised.

"Not really. You can't really say relationship. It was basically either freaky spiritual relations or hot and heavy one night stands," Cordy said, sitting down opposite her at the table.

"One night stands? How can he... I thought he couldn't..." Buffy started, shocked.

"Have sex?" Cordy asked.

"Make love" she corrected her.

"That, he can't. Sex, yeah. It's the whole moment of true happiness. An orgasm is not a happy in Angel language. It's the whole emotional baggage that comes with it, now that's a happy. That's why he never actually risked more than a one nighter. He discovered this little piece of news back with the whole Darla thing. You know about Darla being back and all, right?" she asked, interrupting her own comment.

"Spike mentioned something" Buffy remembered him saying something Drusilla had shared with him when she had comeback to Sunnydale.

"Thank god! I am so sick of that story! If I could count the times I had to tell it! Just drives me crazy" she said taking a big breath of air, deciding she should leave out the 'Darla's baby' story that would probably take her all afternoon to tell and she had other things on her mind too. "Well, anyway, that's how he found out and got her out of his head, till then he had this whole obsession/revenge thing going, which sorta screwed up his relations with us. It was a scary time. But then he came back. And then she came back again and... to cut the story short she put a stake through her heart" she said sighing.

"So what kind of girls…women does he like?" she asked, though the question sounded a little off base.

"Oh, he had the whole enchilada. He's just attracted to people, demons, that he considers special. And then there's... uhm..." she couldn't find the right words. "Let me rephrase that. When there's like a tiny group of people and they're you know guys and girls, at some point they... combine. Randomly."

"Never happened to us," Buffy interrupted her for a moment.

"You guys were different, even though if you think about it…I was together with Xander, he cheated on me with Willow, and he had a thing for you, and Anya was with him and she had that whole one time thing with Spike and Spike and you…"

"I got, I got it. Go on," Buffy didn't want to hear their whole history laid out.

"Right…so Fred had a thing for Angel, he had a thing for me, Wes had a thing for Fred, Faith had a thing for Angel, I had a thing for Gunn - which I still do- and Gunn had a very deep, long relationship with Fred a while before we hooked up, then Angel had the whole tense sex thing with Faith, then it was my turn and between us, we had our little relationships. Nothing really worked out. Except me and Gunn, and hopefully it'll continue to work out, though I still think he has a big weakness for Fred," she said, hesitating at first to talk about her fling with Angel, even so making sure she said it in a long line, trying not to make it stand out. Maybe it would be lost in the rest. She didn't know if she should've said something. But then she thought Fred, Wesley or Faith could mention something accidentally. It was better if she heard it from her.

"You and Angel?" Buffy asked, shocked.

"Well, you know, it had to happen at some point. The day when I'm mildly drunk and he's depressed beyond thought and it's just the two of us. So basically we just decided to drop it and most likely forget about it. There were a weird couple of months, but we got over it. No biggy" she said hoping she wouldn't get a pained reaction from the slayer. She didn't want her to know the truth unless it was absolutely necessary. And that wasn't going to be the case. After they would find her daughter, and a million thank yous later she'd disappear from their lives as she had 7 years ago. The last thing she wanted was to hurt her right now.

"Yeah, it happens" Buffy said, tugging her shirt in an effort to control her gestures.

"Sorta happened to you and Spike too. But that was lusty needy feelings not a bottle of whisky and an empty hotel" Cordy said, lying again. She looked at her watch and was alarmed at the time. "Uh, I gotta go make peace with the play director. We'll talk some more later. Angel will be back any time now, Fred's upstairs if you need anything and... can't find it. Bye-bye" she said hurrying out the door and grabbing her purse in the process.

"Bye" Buffy said. She stood there in the silence for a moment. It was good to talk to Cordy, having her mind busy with other thoughts was just what she needed. Cordy and Angel? Now that was weird. But then again the thought of her and Spike would've only brought up laughter 10 years ago, but it had happened, so not even Cordy and Angel sounded so absurd anymore.

She sighed, she couldn't take the waiting. It tore her up inside. She looked down at her feet. She had to find something to do. She looked towards the staircase leading upstairs. Should she talk to Fred? She didn't even know her. She decided she should just pretend that the brunette wasn't there. She stood up and looked around. Everything was squeaky clean. So much for taking her stress out on dirt. Just as she was about to go into the lobby, she heard the front door open and shut, then Angel's familiar voice calling out.

"Cordy?" there was no answer. "Gunn?" he called. She wondered why she didn't step out of the kitchen and let him know she was there. She thought she wasn't prepared to face a one on one conversation with him. "Faith? Wes?" he continued to call out. "Fred?" this time he got a weak answer, muffled by doors, from upstairs.

"Here!" Fred yelled followed by sounds of movement from upstairs. Fred was coming down.

"Where's everybody?" Angel asked, relieved to see a familiar face.

"Cordy decided to go grovel back to her play director, big time. She decided he was right after all. Anyway, Gunn went to pick up Wesley from kindergarten, and Wes and Faith ran into a nest down in the sewers" Fred told him. "Oh, and Buffy's with her sister, I think. Cordy mentioned something like that."

"How about you? No demons to hunt?" he asked smiling.

"None besides my own" Fred said. "Those and the ones haunting a certain physics book I've been trying to understand forever."

"I hope your room doesn't smell anymore" Angel seemed to want to apologize.

"Oh, no problem, Wesley did a little spell. It smells pine fresh now," she assured him. "You know she left a weird vibe back there. Something so mingled, electrifying even. Is she like that, electrifying?"

"You could say that" Angel smiled.

"It's all in her past, it shakes," she said absently.

"Shakes?" Angel asked, wondering if this was one of those moments when her insanity made a little comeback.

"Yeah, like something wouldn't be right. It's been giving me a headache all day" she added, rubbing her temples.

"She must've left something like a spectrum back there. You can sleep in another room until it blows off" he said, putting his fingers to her temples and gently rubbing them.

"That feels good" she said, letting her hands slide down next to her body.

"The trick's massaging the right spot" he said, sitting her down on a chair. "Here" he said, pressing his fingers in a certain spot.

"At this moment, you're god to me" she said, closing her eyes.

"Well you get to learn a lot of useful things in 250 years" he said, lowering his hands to her neck.

"So with what exactly did this little trick help you with?" she asked, leaning her back on his body and looking up in his eyes.

"Women mostly" he said, making Fred giggle.

"Well, you got my vote. I could let you do this for hours" she said, closing her eyes again. "So all it took was one little temple massage?"

"You could say that. Then I'd work my way down to the neck, then the shoulders, until I got under their skirts. The End" he said.

"You're not trying that on me, are you?" she said, looking down at his hands that were now rubbing her shoulders. Angel chuckled.

"No" he said smiling down at her.

"Good" she said and sank back down in his embrace, then added: "Besides I'm not even wearing a skirt."

For a moment Angel's hands stopped on her shoulders.

"Don't stop now!" Fred protested.

"I'm sorry" Angel cleared his throat. "I was just imagining something."

With a quick move Fred moved away from his arms and grabbed the nearest pillow hitting him in the face with it.

"You dirty old vampire!" she said laughing.

"Hey, you're the one with the sick mind here" Angel said returning the pillow in her face. A massive pillow fight ensued, both holding on to one and hitting, Fred as hard as she could, and Angel only playfully avoiding hurting her. With a laughed out scream, Angel rose Fred off the ground, squeezing the pillow she was clenching in her arms between them as he brought her up face to face with him, feathers still floating around them. He held her like you'd hold a child up to look at.

"Give up now or face the consequences" Angel told her with a faked serious look.

"What are you gonna do, bite me?" she asked, playfully poking his chest with her finger.

"Actually I had something else in mind" he said, flipping her over his shoulder, the pillow she was holding falling at Angel's feet.

"Angel! Put me down!" Fred yelled laughing, shaking her feet. Trying to stop her from moving, Angel wasn't paying attention to his feet as he walked. He stepped on a toy, tripping over the carpet and crashing down on the floor. His hands instinctively held Fred to his chest, trying to protect her from the fall as much as he could. He landed on the floor, hurting his back, but with Fred safe atop him in his arms, her eyes still shut awaiting a jolt of pain.

"You okay?" Angel asked softly.

Fred opened her eyes carefully.

"I think so" she said, rising herself face to face with him. "How about you?"

"A few bruises, but I think I'll survive" he said.

"So tell me, what exactly did you have in mind?" she asked, looking him in the eye.

"Guess we'll never find out," Angel said smiling.

"Sure I can't change your mind?" she asked, her face inches away from his. Her lips lowered just a little, touching his.

"And we're the ones being immature? Right!" Gunn said startling them. Fred rolled next to Angel, gathering herself, while Angel got up, both embarrassed. Gunn was standing a few feet away from the door with his hands crossed over his chest, while little Wesley stood a step in front of him, with his hands covering his eyes, still peeking between his fingers, smiling.

Fred gave Angel a small smile before moving away from him scooping Wesley in her arms. "And how was your day, little man?"

"Not as fun as yours" the boy said smiling.

"Don't be so sure. I've been hearing voices all day" Fred said, trying to ignore the boy's comment.

"Your head hurts, in the inside. Like tiny bruises?" Wesley asked, touching her temples.

"You could say that" Fred said. "I have a lot of scars inside there" she added, tapping on her head. "But enough about that. How was kindergarten?"

"Good" Wesley said looking over her shoulder. "I'm hungry."

"Me too. Let's go have a snack" Fred said raising her eyebrows.

"Nothing sweet," Angel warned her.

"Your daddy always wants to ruin our fun," Fred said smiling as they moved towards the kitchen.

"Is something wrong with him? He usually talks a lot about his day," Angel said, looking at Fred as she disappeared into the kitchen.

"No... well his teacher said he was acting a little weird after he went to the bathroom," Gunn said sitting down.

"Weird how?" Angel asked.

"Like something happened, something he didn't want to share with anyone," Gunn repeated the teacher's words.

"Did he tell you anything?" Angel asked sighing.

"Nope. Quiet as a mouse" Gunn said then added a little worried: "You think..."

"No. It's not gonna show until he'll be 16, they promised" Angel assured him.

"Good" Gunn said staring at the carpet for a long moment.

"I'll try to find out what happened" Angel said, leaning down into a chair, while Gunn stared at him curiously. "Stop it!"

Fred entered the kitchen still holding Wesley in her arms. She let out a small scream when she saw Buffy. The slayer startled slightly.

"Buffy! Sorry, I thought no one was here. I thought no one was home" Fred added.

"It's okay" Buffy said, feeling awkward talking to her after hearing her and Angel in the other room.

"Hi, Buffy" the little boy said while Fred let him slide out of her arms. He ran towards the fridge.

"Hi, Wesley" Buffy returned the salute, smiling at the boy as he struggled to open the fridge. He finally managed to open it with a little help from Buffy.

"How about pizza?" Wesley asked, taking out a pizza box.

"Well it's not sweet," Fred smiled as the boy clapped his hands over the box before closing the refrigerator. Buffy watched him fascinated. In some ways she seemed to see a small version of Angel: a brown haired boy with chocolate eyes and an angelic face. But there was also a strange resemblance to Faith, a smile, that pseudo-happy smile she had seen only on her sister slayer, the way one of his curls twirled, the way he hung on to some things like they were his life. A vague memory of Faith's knife came to her mind.

"Yay, pizza" Wesley cheered, heading for the microwave. Buffy noticed a feeling of utter joy on the boy's features, one neither of his parents possessed and maybe never would.

"Let me have that. You're way too young to work electronics, baby" Fred said, taking the box from the boy's hands and winking at Buffy in the process.

"You just have to press that button" Wesley said, upset that she had taken away the box from his hands.

"You know what, I'll make you a deal. When you turn 5 the first thing I'm going to let you do is program the microwave, okay?" Fred told him and his sadness immediately washed away. A thin smile crossed Buffy's lips. Fatima use to do the same.

"Promise?" Wesley asked, looking up.

"Hey, did I ever not keep a promise?" Fred asked as she programmed the microwave.

"Yeeeees" Wesley sang. "When you had little demons in your head," he pointed towards her head.

"Darn. I hoped you wouldn't remember" Fred said, looking down at him.

"Vampire's memory" Wesley pointed towards his own head, saying the words Cordy used to describe his brilliant memory. He could remember things from the first year of his life, like the color of his sheets or the songs Faith liked to sing to him. "Just like daddy," he added with a big satisfied smile on his face.

"You bet" Fred smiled. Wesley looked hesitantly at Buffy. The slayer noticed his wondering gaze.

"Something wrong?" Buffy asked looking into his brown eyes.

"No. Everything's okay," Wesley said, changing his mind instantly. "I'm gonna go watch TV," he said, determined and walked out of the kitchen.

"I wish everything was okay," Buffy said looking down.

"It will be. Soon," Fred assured her. "I have to get some of my stuff in another room" she remembered. "Could you please give Wesley the pizza when it's done?"

"Sure" Buffy said watching her hurry out of the kitchen.

Fred climbed up the stairs, hurrying towards her room. She opened the door slowly, only for a hurricane of thoughts to invade her mind the moment she stepped in. Her mind seemed to be more vulnerable then others, probably because of the experiences she had had in Pylea. All the voices whispered in her ears some kind of history. It made her think of the story that had been written on the walls of that room more then 8 years ago. And at first she wondered if the walls hadn't come alive and were telling their story all over again. She felt that way, like history was repeating itself.

Her crush on Angel had silently returned inside her heart, digging deeper under the surface this time. But at least he seemed to share a certain degree of her feelings. And Buffy had shown up now of all times, bringing back all his feelings for her. Even if he still liked to play with her, they'd played over the years for different reasons, it didn't always mean something. Only she had caught him staring blankly out the window, pondering something at times and only she had found a picture of the slayer in his favorite book. She knew sometimes, he thought about his lost love. But he had so many people in his mind that you never knew when or about who he was thinking, his parents, his sire, his love, his first child and the second one fate had blessed him with, old friends and companions.

She sighed. She had tried given up figuring Angel out, but she just couldn't bring herself to let go. It was one of the great mysteries she wanted to solve in her lifetime.

'I told you to get out of my town!' the voices whispered in her ear.

'You can't just… Not after everything...'

'Get out or I swear to god I'll kill you!' the voices yelled, followed by the sound of someone falling to his knees.

'I...I...I...I...I...I...I' different voices repeated and she seemed to recognize some of them. And then the crying started, making her cover her ears and stuff her things messily in a bag and exit the room as fast as possible. Once on the other side of the door she sighed, leaning down next to it.

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Faith asked Angel as she put her jacket on. "We don't really have to go, if you need us."

"You promised Wes. I know you want to keep your promise," Angel told her, giving her a kiss on the cheek. "Now go have fun and don't let anyone get drunk."

"I'll try" Faith said, just as little Wesley rushed into the room to jump in his mother's arms.

"We're going to see uncle Lorne!" he said happily.

"Yes we are" Faith smiled at him, letting him down from her arms.

"Aren't you coming, daddy?" he asked, looking up at his father.

"Daddy has to stay home and make sure the bad ghosts don't get Buffy," Angel told his son.

"Oh, then you take care of her" Wesley said, before running down into the lobby to join Cordy, Gunn, Wes and Fred. "Bye!"

"Bye" Angel said waving at him. "He's something our son, isn't he?" 

"Yeah, he is" Faith said and they shared one of those smiles only parents could share amongst themselves. "Take care of yourselves" she said and exited towards the lobby. Angel stood there for a moment, with his hands in his pockets. He smiled and turned away.

"Where's Angel?" Fred asked when she saw Faith coming alone.

"He's babysitting Buffy" Faith said.

"Damn and I wanted to hear him sing Mandy!" Fred sighed.

"Believe me it's not something you want to hear" Cordy said. Angel's singing hadn't improved much over the years, especially that first song he had sung, but it was more like it had to sound as false as the very first time for it to really be Angel's song. "I think we'll just have to settle for Faith's 'Bitch' and your 'Crazy' for tonight." They had made a deal to sing all their first songs that night.

"And your 'Bridge Over Troubled Water'" Faith reminded Cordy.

"Why was I hoping she'd forget about that?" Gunn asked.

"Probably cause we were dead-drunk last time we sang that song?" Cordy suggested. "Remind me again why we **had** to tell them that story?"

"Because we didn't see this coming," Wesley told her.

"There's definitely not enough tequila in that bar to make me sing again," Gunn said as they were heading for the door.

"Wait, no one's getting drunk tonight!" Faith suddenly remembered her promise to Angel. "Not in front of my baby."

"Aunt Cordy makes a funny drunk" little Wes pointed out.

"Why didn't I just skip that second shot of bourbon?" Cordy asked herself, shaking her head.

"I think the question is why you didn't skip the third and the fourth…" Fred started.

"And the fifth and the sixth..." Wes continued.

"Or the seventh..." Faith joined in.

"Hey, hey, enough with the finger pointing, I was emotionally distressed! I thought he was cheating on me" Cordy said, defending herself and pointing towards Gunn.

"With the demon dance teacher I got so I wouldn't embarrass her at her big theatre bash," Gunn reminded her. "Well, yeah sure, she was pretty hot before she pulled out her three horns, spare leg and gooey surface, but please!"

"Hey, I have major trust issues. Let's not forget my father ran away with the maid and left me and my mom drowning in debt," Cordy said.

"And my mom liked to ignore or beat me" Faith added as they climbed in Gunn's car.

"And let's not forget about my abusive father" Wesley reminded them.

"And my parents who abandoned me and my sis when I was seven" Gunn said sighing. Fred opened her mouth to say something.

"Don't even say it!" a chorus of voices stopped her.

"Sheesh, I was just gonna say you shouldn't drive too fast because there was a squad car behind the corner" Fred rolled her eyes.

"Sorry, girl, but usually you start to complain about **your** parents" Gunn said as he slowed down his usual high speed.

"Your perfect, sweet, adorable parents" Cordy reminded her.

"Who support you in hunting demons for a living" Wesley added.

"And your mother who bakes those incredible pies." Gunn remembered making everyone sigh at the memory. "Talking about your mother and her pies when is she paying us a visit?"

"This is when I regret everyone adoring my parents. I can't even bad mouth them" Fred shook her head.

"Well?" Gunn ignored her words and still awaited an answer to his question.

"Dad said they're gonna come up to see us next month" Fred said.

"Grandma and grandpa are coming to visit?" little Wesley suddenly asked, obviously thrilled by the news. Fred's parents had become the only grandparents he was ever going to know.

"Not now, next month" Faith told him.

"Oh" little Wes said a little disappointed. He looked out the window of the car from Faith's arms, staring into the dark night. Something seemed to shift and he recognized the shape of the girl he had seen earlier that day. She smiled at him and put a finger on her lips. A shadow suddenly appeared behind her, snatching her away. The girl seemed to giggle. Little Wesley let out a gasp as the two shadows disappeared.

"What's wrong?" Faith asked him looking out the window.

"Nothing" the boy immediately said.

"Are you sure?" Faith asked again. They all knew something had happened that day. He just didn't seem to be himself since he had returned from kindergarten.

"Just a scary man, mom" the child assured his mother, hugging her, but still staring over her shoulder into the night, in search of the golden girl.

Angel closed the door to Buffy's room. She was too tired to even talk. He thought she was trying to avoid him too though. He couldn't understand why. She was probably just scared of how much he had changed since he had left Sunnydale. In some ways even he was scared. He told himself all she needed was sleep. She needed sleep. And he was there to make sure she was going to get it. He went downstairs, sat down on a couch and grabbed a book he was reading the day before, his vampire senses alert to any danger that might come near the hotel. Nothing could escape him, except the shadows climbing up, lurking in the darkness, passing through closed doors, lowering the slayer and her bed into a black aura.

Up in her room, Buffy moved in her sleep to the other side. Something seemed to disturb her dreams, pushing inside her unconscious mind, haunting her.

End Part 5


	7. Part 6

**Part 6**

"_Life has to be lived looking ahead, into the unknown, but it can only be understood by looking back, to what was, to the mistakes made by others. To understand you have to search for the fire that has burnt inside those that were."_

_Kolhapur, India_

_1267_

The girl ran through the fire, trying to protect her body from the burning heat. Her sari was dirty, clinging to her sweaty body as she ran on silent, bare feet. Her hands were bloodied from her relentless hold on her knife; and still she ran. She fled the house that was being eaten alive by the flames. She had left many bodies behind her, crushed under her power, cut to pieces by her knife.

As the building started collapsing around her with one swift jump she crashed through a window, landing outside on her knees, breathing heavily. Her hands left bloody prints on the ground in front of her as she gathered herself for a moment before rising off the ground and continuing her run, turning the corner still clutching the knife in her fist.

A smile crossed her lips when she saw the white man, pale and dirty from the smoke and ash, his hand burnt, leaning on the wall, looking down. "John! John!" she yelled holding up her knife. "Prophecies can be wrong, John!" she added and the old British Man looked up, his eyes filling up with tears. Then his statement turned to horror as a demon detached himself from the flames and rose silently behind the slayer.

"Sadyia!" he screamed, trying to reach out for her. But he was too late. The demon's claws pierced through the young girl's back, coming out through her stomach. Disbelievingly, she looked down at the bloody hand coming out of her belly; then her knife dropped from her numb hands.

She lay dead in the arms of the demon she had left for dead. The watcher fell to his knees, crying as the demon let out a savage cry and pulled out the heart of the slayer, swallowing it whole. Blood trickled down his chin as he looked at the pitiful watcher gathering the heartless body of the slayer into his arms, rocking it back and forward like an infant. The demon scowled in disgust- the watcher wasn't worth killing. Turning his back on the scene, the demon disappeared into the flames.

"But I was more then that! Much more! I wasn't just a dead slayer. I was a dead child. Only 17! My mother thought me a poet! I was a dreamer! I wanted to live! And John, poor John! He killed it for me! He tracked it down into the pits of Asia. He did it for me and only then he went back to England. They wanted to give him a new slayer…"

_London, 1270_

"No, I'm too old… I've lived my share of chaos. I want to go back. To Manchester," John Cabot said watching his rum absently.

"Are you sure, John? This girl is amazing, from Russia, rich too. Might be a change for you," the elder spoke, watching the man in front of him with pity. John Cabot would not live long without his slayer. No watcher could.

"He lived two months in Manchester, one in New Castle. He began drinking. A lot. He didn't see the horses coming," Sadyia said absently caressing the hair of the sleeping slayer. Her sari shined in the darkness of the room. She sighed, her form began to shift, her face whitening, her hair lightening, and her shape slowly began to diminish. "I was so young. I still wanted to play with puppets. I wanted to ride ponies and go to the circus. I just wanted to be like other little girls, but I was special…"

_Glasgow, England_

_1412_

A small blond girl stood on the table, wearing a dark blue dress, and on her small feet she wore boots. They were twice the size she needed; she could barely drag her feet forward in them, and yet, she was the slayer.

The tall British man paced in front of her. "I don't want you to go alone, Giny," he said while the girl crossed her arms over her chest, cross.

"How am I ever going to be a good slayer with you watching me all the time?" the girl shook her head.

"I'll watch you until you're old enough to take care of yourself. You're just a child, don't forget that. If the demons won't get you, the people will. And you can't kill them," the man said stopping in front of her.

"Then why'd they make me the slayer?" she asked looking down.

"I ask myself that question every minute of my life," he said while he was tying the laces of her boots. "You take care of yourself, you hear me?" he hugged her.

"I will, uncle Mal, promise I will," the girl returned the hug, a sad smile on her face. Sad smiles were the only kind she could afford to give.

"I didn't keep my promise. But you see, I couldn't have known. I didn't know there was going to be more than one. I thought it was just that one," the child explained as the slayer shifted in her sleep.

_Glasgow, 1412_

The watcher walked down inside the cave, holding up his torch to see better. The ground was humid. He had decided to break the promise to his slayer and search for her while she was hunting. She was there inside the cave somewhere, where she had followed a demon the previous night. To avoid stepping into a pool of water he reached out to hold on to the cavern wall. As soon as his fingers touched it, they withdrew almost instantaneously. There was slime on the wall. He lifted the torch nearer to get a better look. The whole wall was covered in it, a green disgusting slime, leading up to the ceiling in a thick leer. His eyes went wide when he realized what it meant. He began speeding up, carelessly stepping in the slime, water and mud, caring only to make it on time. "Ginny! Ginny!" he began screaming her name waving the torch around wildly.

"Uncle Mal?" a tiny voice answered his call from far away.

"Regina, is that you?" the watcher yelled running through the cave towards the voice.

"I told you not to follow me!" the voice reminded him.

"I couldn't well leave you alone!" The watcher yelled feeling relieved. He passed a corner and found Regina standing, with a familiar cross look on her face, next to the corpse of a demon, still holding an ax in her small hands.

"I'm never going to grow up with you around!" Regina sighed. The watcher smiled, then noticed the slimy walls beginning to grumble.

"Regina, move away from the walls," he told her.

"Why should I…" Regina started.

"Now!" he rose his voice and Ginny moved away a little taken aback. The slime walls suddenly broke releasing a herd of hungry demons from their eggs. Ginny and her watcher didn't have a chance to escape. They were eaten alive. Shredded to pieces.

"I don't even have a grave. Most of us do. I would've wanted one. Somewhere nice. Near our house in Glasgow, but they couldn't find a piece of my body intact, Uncle Mal's either. We were just a mass of meat pounded into the earth with the slime and the mud," the girl's face twisted into a disgusted grimace. She closed her eyes, touching the wall, her form changing, her curly hair rising up, her skin becoming black.

"You don't remember me, I'm sure, but you were told of me," the girl said moving away from the wall. "You know…"

_New York, 1977_

A Billy Idol-like vampire was fighting the black girl in a subway car. They traded blows; matching strike after strike until suddenly, the slayer felt the wall of the car against her back.

"And of course…"

_New York, 1977_

Spike broke her neck like a twig.

"Not much of a story there, huh?" the girl said lunging over Buffy. "How would you feel about that? Someone taking your life with just one twist of the neck?" her hands encircled the neck of the slayer. Her features twisted into anger for a small moment before returning to its indifferent glance. She took her hands from around her neck.

"Do you know me?" she asked as her features turned to those of a white girl, with long black hair and big brown eyes. Her voice betrayed an Italian accent. "It's funny…" she said her hand trailing the sheets of the bed. "Someone mentioned me today. That doesn't happen every day. Actually it happens once every five or more years. And it wasn't even my name… I'm **that** slayer you know. The oldest slayer," she sat down on the edge of the bed watching the features of the sleeping slayer, her ghostly hand reaching out, caressing her cheek. "Let me tell you another story. It's about a girl, not exactly a common girl, a Venetian courtesan…" she sighed looking down absently at the sheets for a moment before returning her attention on the slayer. "You'd be amazed how much that helped me."

_Venice, Italy_

_1783_

"Morning, ladies," the British man climbed down the stairs cheerful. The various women walking out of their rooms, barely dressed, some naked, gave him their most seductive smile.

"Bon giorno, Ionatan," they greeted him sleepily.

He shared their smiles as he headed towards the room of his protégé. He opened the door carefully, trying to avoid making much noise. He chuckled at the sight of his slayer, half-dressed, slumped on her bed, her shoes not even taken off. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he reached down and stroked her head. The sleeping slayer stirred under his touch.

"Isabella… Wake up. Izzy, wake up," he told her softly. Her hand reached up caressing his thigh. The watcher stiffened, his hand freezing on her head for a moment. Isabella suddenly rose up, sustaining herself on her free hand, and kissed the watcher. He sighed, letting her have the kiss. She slumped back down in the bed, her hand not leaving her watcher's thigh.

"Is it morning already, Jonathan?" she asked sleepily.

"I'm afraid so," the watcher cleared his throat taking her hand off his thigh. He pulled a small package from his pocket. "Here. Happy Birthday."

"Birthday? Already? I thought I just passed one," she said straightening up a bit. She took the package from his hand.

"Last year, yes," Jonathan told her.

"I guess the years are just getting shorter," she said opening the package.

"It's not much, it's…" his words were stopped by a high pitched shriek of happiness from Isabella.

"It's beautiful!" she said holding the pendant close to her heart. "I love it!"

"Really?" Jonathan looked up, smiling. Isabella jumped in his arms, kissing him. She sent him crashing down on the bed, straddling his waist. "Uhm, Izzy, you're not wearing any underclothes."

"I know, but I don't think you mind," she said pressing her naked flesh down on him.

"I thought we agreed not to…" a finger on his lips silenced him.

"It's been more then a year, Jonathan. Let it be," she said and bent down to kiss him again. He didn't oppose her anymore.

She stepped into the abandoned mausoleum, carefully watching where she was placing her feet. She had left a spent Jonathan in her bed, the other girls to their work, and went hunting, even on this night, her birthday. She hadn't encountered much, a few lone vampires barely risen from their graves. And now another seemed to be hiding inside the mausoleum. She stepped inside, putting more and more distance between herself and the exit. Suddenly, the stone door shut behind her, startling her. She turned around to see a vampire buried in the shadows.

"Well, well, if it isn't the mighty slayer," the vampire said stepping out of the darkness and pacing around her. "The undefeated champion. The unbeatable hero. Humanity's great gift. A whore."

"I've never met a vampire who liked to talk as much as you," Isabella said unimpressed by his coldness and the danger he seemed to emanate. She had met him on more then one occasion, but she always fought to keep herself calm around him.

"I've never met a slayer that likes being a whore. Tell me do you please demons too? Or do you even know the difference?" he asked looking up for a moment. "I've always wanted to try a slayer… see if they're any good."

"I don't pleasure anything dead or vile," the slayer said taking a fighting position.

"Not much for talking, are you?" he asked. The slayer tried to punch him, but he blocked her swing.

"Fine. Have it your way," he punched her in the gut and she returned the hit. They started fighting and when it seemed Isabella was winning a hand grabbed her from behind throwing her across the mausoleum and into a wall.

"You didn't really think I came alone, did you?"

"Oh, look, she did," the female vampire said smiling. "Foolish little thing. So did she give you your money's worth?"

"Afraid not," the vampire said sighing with fake disappointment, while Isabella gathered herself and rose off the ground.

"What a pity… then you'll just have to take what you paid for," the female vampire suggested as the slayer prepared for a fight.

"I suppose I will," the vampire grinned and put his game face on.

"Ever been tortured to near death? I wish I would've just been decapitated, would've washed away some shame. But you know not all of us can get a righteous death. I didn't. Jonathan didn't either. He tried finding the vampire but he seemed to have vanished off the face of the earth. Jonathan hung himself in the library of the Watcher's Council. It was suppose to be a statement. I'm not sure they understood that," the girl said.

"Would you like to know who the vampire was?" she asked leaning down over the sleeping slayer. "Angel" she whispered. Buffy suddenly flashed inside Isabella's body, her hands held up by hard chains, her body drowned in sweat, her clothes shredded while a knife played along her body. Holding the knife, his body an inch away from hers, Angelus stood, whispering something into her ear. She realized she couldn't hear very well anymore, her ears were bleeding. An excruciating pain crossed her body as the knife pierced the skin and entered the flesh, sinking deeper and deeper inside her. Then Angelus's free hand reached up to her neck choking her. Pulling the hair from it, he sank his fangs into her.

Buffy woke up gasping for air, her chest moving spasmodically up and down. In the sudden awakening, she saw shadows dancing in the room, a man carrying a woman towards a tomb, then the horrible sound of metal hitting flesh, then rock. She closed her eyes and when she opened them there was nothing left but an empty room. She looked down at her body. She was whole. Not one bruise, not one cut.

"That's what you told her?" Faith arched an eyebrow.

"And she actually believed you?" Gunn asked.

"Well what else is she suppose to believe?" Cordy raised her shoulders.

"The fact that he use to worship you, wouldn't make much of a difference, would it?" Wesley asked, looking over at Fred who was singing on stage while Lorne and little Wes stood next to it, talking.

"Yeah, in a 'I want to make her feel worse' kinda way," Cordy said taking a sip from her drink.

Fred finished her song and the patrons of Caritas applauded. "What a performance! Let's give her a big hand!" Lorne applauded and was joined once again by the patrons. Fred took a little bow, smiled and retreated to the table.

"And now for the first time in our club, Keggar the slime demon!" A gooey demon slithered onto the stage, took the microphone from the host's hand, and started to sing a rather sloppy version of 'Feelings'.

"So what do you think about your Aunt Fred?" Lorne asked little Wes, who was sitting up on a high chair.

"I think she's confused. Sad a little. Daddy does that to her. She goes all weak in the knees too," the boy said looking over at Fred. She noticed him staring and she wove at him. He returned the wave. "I don't know why."

"Pretty good for a four year old," Lorne admired. "You're gonna' be one hell of a soul reader some day. Uh, let's not tell mommy about that 'hell' I said, okay?"

"That's not an ugly word. Hell. Daddy was there," Wes said.

"They don't know that you…" Lorne started.

"No. Daddy thinks it's going to appear when I'm going to be older. I don't want to upset him," Wes told him.

"You are such a thoughtful child, Wes. So what do you think our slimy friend's thinking about?" he turned towards the stage.

"Lard. Tons of it," Wesley said making a grimace.

"Well at least now we know were he got all that slime from," Lorne said smiling.

"Someone came today," the boy said looking away.

"Who came?" Lorne asked, he had felt a certain restraint in the boy all night, but hadn't been able to figure out where it had come from.

"Buffy," the boy said and Lorne was obviously surprised. He hadn't heard anything about this particular slayer in years. Before, he would hear demons that would pass through LA from Sunnydale complaining about her, but for the last few years they hadn't said or thought anything. "Who is she uncle Lorne?"

"A slayer your daddy protected a long time ago," Lorne said. "Why? Is something wrong with her?"

"I don't know. I feel something strange about her. Something wrong," the boy said thinking about everything that he had seen that day.

"Oh, well, she was brought back from the dead once. Maybe that's what you feel," Lorne said confusing Wesley.

"You can bring people back?" he asked.

"I don't know if you can anymore. You see…" Lorne started while little Wesley awaited an answer. "It's very complicated. I promise I'll explain it when you're older."

"That's the second promise I was made today," Wesley said.

"What was the first?" Lorne asked.

"That I can use the microwave when I'll turn five," Wesley smiled and Lorne chuckled. He was such a strange child. Sometimes he seemed to be like every other 4-year-old out there, and sometimes he seemed frighteningly old and wise. But then again he was no average child, he was the son of a slayer and a vampire. In front of them, he'd always be a child though. Thinking back to Connor, Lorne realized Wes wasn't peculiar in any way. Angel's children would always be different. Each one, in their own way. He only hoped Wesley wouldn't walk the same path as Connor had.

"And there's something else about her. Daddy… when she's around him, he feels like Aunt Fred does when he's around her," the boy said, wanting to tell his Uncle Lorne about Fatima, but something seemed to hold him back, telling him Uncle Lorne didn't have to know.

"And let me guess, you failed to mention you're half-demon too?" back at the table, Faith asked.

"Yeah…but…" Cordelia started offering an excuse.

"Suppose she just happens to see you doing one of your levitating tricks," Wesley said shaking his head.

"You'll give her a heart attack," Gunn agreed.

"I don't get why you'd want to hide that anyway. I mean you and Angel, I get, but your half-demon thing?" Fred shook her head.

"You people are impossible," Cordy said. "This is like a voting booth. Whose for letting Buffy know I'm a half-demon? Everyone but me raise your hands."

"Hey! You people voted and made me shave my mustache and beard off," Wesley reminded her.

"Yeah, but that was like, common sense, but this… It's just…" she sighed. Every time they had a group talk, she felt like she was in some sort of confessional. "All the time she knew me I was a complete anti-any-demon, and now I'm a half-breed, what would she think?"

"Uh, Cordelia show me your horns?" Faith suggested smiling.

"What happened to the whole 'I'm not secretive about being a half-demon, who ever doesn't like it can go to hell' idea?" Fred asked.

"Yeah, you've been doing it for the last 7 years and now you're suddenly not sure because Buffy's here?" Wesley asked.

"Fine! I'll tell her the first chance I get to," Cordy gave up. Maybe everything would speed up and she wouldn't get that chance.

"Talking about chances, here's yours. I think it's time we hear your song, guys," Fred said. Cordy, Wes and Gunn grimaced.

"Do we really have to?" Cordy asked.

"We only did it so we can make fun of Angel while he's singing anyway," Wesley said, but Fred and Faith didn't want to hear it.

"Actually we did it to make fun of you," Faith said giving them one of her old wicked smiles.

"C'mon, Cordy, it can't be worse then your 'Only you' after six shots of tequila," Fred said smiling.

"Don't remind me, my ears still ring just at the mentioning," Lorne said as he and Little Wesley rejoined the group. He watched as the boy clambered up onto a chair next to his mother.

"And what did Uncle Lorne teach you today?" Faith asked her son.

"Slime demons eat a lot of lard," Wesley said all smiles.

"Now there's something you just had to know," Gunn said before taking another sip from his glass.

"Another step towards becoming the newest employee of Angel Investigations," Wesley toasted in honor of the boy before drinking his beer down in one draught.

"Don't worry, he's just trying to scare you," Cordy whispered to little Wesley. "You'll get us off your case after you go to college."

"But I don't want you off my case. I like it just fine at home," the boy said before stealing some peanuts from a bowl.

"I wish you'd say the same in 20 years," Faith said sighing. She shook away the feeling of something crimson belonging to the future and gently caressed her son's hair before placing a kiss on his forehead. "Now you three get your asses up there before I hurt you," she addressed Cordy, Gunn and Wesley. The three looked at each other horrified that they had to sing again.

"C'mon do that thing again… with the trailing off," Faith said coming into the lobby laughing. "And I thought I sucked!"

"Ha, ha, very funny," Wesley said shaking his head.

"I thought it was funny," little Wesley rubbed his eyes tiredly.

"We should've come back earlier," Faith said seeing her poor son so sleepy.

"He was the one who wanted to hear everyone sing," Gunn said. "Wonder where he gets all the stubbornness from?"

"Is that even a question worth answering?" Wesley asked looking at Faith and then at Angel who was just coming downstairs.

"Hi. How did it go?" Angel asked while taking his son in his arms. The boy rested his head on his shoulder and fell asleep almost instantly.

"On a scale from 1 to 10, 10 being the most humiliating night of my life. I'd give it a fair 7. Let's face it, nothing's gonna beat my jealous rage against a demon, or the fact that I winded up in a five star hotel without underwear," Cordy said and Angel smiled.

"I don't want to know what that last thing was all about," Faith said.

"You really don't," Fred assured her.

"So how did things go with Buffy?" Wesley asked. "Did you talk to her?"

"Not really. After you left she just scampered off upstairs to bed," Angel said, sitting down on one of the lobby couches.

"You didn't do anything like, oh say, follow her?" Cordy asked arching an eyebrow.

"Cordy," Angel's voice rose slightly.

"Sorry, old habit," Cordy said smiling.

"Anything unusual happen?" Gunn asked.

"No. Everything was quiet," Angel assured them.

"I guess we'll just wait for tomorrow, see what happens," Wesley said stretching. "I'm going up. Good night, all," Wesley added before going upstairs.

"Yeah, we better hit the sack too," Gunn said taking Cordy by the hand.

"Sweet dreams," Fred told them as they disappeared upstairs. "I better go too, I think tomorrow's gonna be a long day," she kissed little Wesley on his forehead and then she lifted her head towards Angel almost instinctively kissing him, but instead, at the last moment, she kissed him on the cheek, whispering a 'good night'.

After Fred went up to her room, Faith looked at him for a moment.

"What?" Angel asked noticing her stare.

"She has a thing for you," Faith told him.

"She use to," Angel said.

"She does. But this time I think it goes both ways," Faith said. Angel gave a look that she knew meant 'I don't know what you're talking about'.

"C'mon! I saw the way you look at her. And Gunn saw more than that."

"We were just fooling around… Not that kind of fooling around! We were just playing," Angel defended himself.

"And almost kissing," Faith said. "You don't have to hide it from me. I love Fred, she's completely adorable."

"She's just so sweet," Angel said a smile he didn't even feel curving up on his lips. "I think that's what I want. What I need. Something sweet."

"So how about B?" Faith asked sitting down for a moment.

"Buffy…She's just Buffy. It can be ten years, a hundred years, but the moment she walks in my life… boom! It's an uncontrollable feeling. I could never explain it."

"I wish I'd get that," Faith said somewhat envying him.

"You will, someday," he told her.

"I wish I could believe that. I feel old, Angel," Faith said sighing.

"Old? Where does all this pessimism suddenly come from?" he asked.

"B," Faith simply said. "Until now it was living day by day, but then she crawled out of no where and I remembered everything. You don't know what it's like. You'll live forever."

"I'm still hoping that changes," Angel reminded her.

"And I want what you want to get rid of. I don't want to be old and wrinkled and not even be able to throw a good punch, it's too freakin' scary for me," Faith said looking down.

"What are you saying?" Angel asked seriously worried about what her words implied.

"I don't know," she chuckled trying to ease the tension the conversation was gaining. "I've been having these weird feelings for a week or so. Like I should be dead or something."

"Don't be stupid. We need you alive. He needs you alive," he whispered referring to their son. "I need you."

"Maybe you do, maybe you don't. And God Angel, I'm afraid I'll live alone for the rest of my life and I won't find anything close to love. I mean, really, who wants a vampire slaying single mother whose done time for murder anyway?" she asked and stopped Angel from saying what he wanted to say. "And I know what you're gonna say. You're gonna tell me I'm wrong, that I already have love and it's true I do, but sometimes, there's… this emptiness inside me…" her voice trailed off. "Is that what you felt after you left her?"

"In the beginning, but then I had a whole new life and before I realized it, I couldn't find an empty spot in my heart anymore. And Buffy… I still feel love for her, I can't lie to you, but what we had ... it can never be like it use to be again. She's been gone from my life for ten years, ten long years in which I haven't been there for her, she's been through so much without me, done so many things…she's not the person I knew. She's not the teenager dancing the clubs, always joking, worrying about her studying, always complaining about her little sister, her teachers, her watcher. She's not the girl who use to sneak out her bedroom window to hunt in cemeteries, she's not that girl anymore. She's older and she's been through hell. A hell I haven't seen and I don't know anything about. And even so whenever I see her, I remember everything we use to have and I can't help but smile and just want to hold her in my arms. If through some great miracle we'd actually have another chance together, it would be something different, something totally new."

"A different kind of love?" Faith smilingly asked as she sat down next to him.

"Mmmm-hmm," he said. Her smile suddenly faded.

"I'm scared. I don't know where it's coming from...but all of a sudden life scares the shit out of me," Angel put an arm around her shoulders bringing her closer to him.

"It's okay. Everyone gets scared sometimes," Angel said placing a kiss on her forehead and resting his chin on her head. Wesley stirred in his arms. The boy was awake, unknown to his father, staring behind him, at the walls.

Angel left his apartment being as quiet as possible. Faith had fallen asleep in his arms down in the lobby along with their son and he had carried them both upstairs. Now, he just wanted to check on Buffy one last time.

The door to the room he had chosen for her was closed. He knocked once, calling her name. Not getting an answer, he knocked again before entering the room. It was empty. The sheets were gathered up in a bundle in the middle of the bed, the shirt she had been sleeping in carelessly thrown on a chair, some of her clothes missing. He immediately looked at the windows, they were all shut. The bathroom was closed, the lights off everywhere. He smelled the air in the room, it smelled like vanilla and cold salty sweat and something he couldn't place, an aroma that reminded him of old and burnt things. He left the room, deciding she must have gone down while he had been tucking in Wesley.

He searched for her in the lobby and then in the kitchen. She wasn't there. He was about to leave the kitchen when he heard the muffled sounds coming from the basement. He opened the door and climbed down a few steps. She was there taking out her anger on a punching bag that hung from the ceiling. She didn't even notice him, she was so absorbed in what she was doing.

A smile crossed his lips before he climbed back up and left the slayer alone in the basement.

She was standing in the darkness of the lobby. She couldn't bring herself to climb back up in that room or fall asleep. It was past 5 a.m., but she was too horrified by those ghosts. The fact that her daughter was in the hands of four of them must have triggered some kind of unconscious self-torture. Tears fell down her face at the knowledge that her daughter was gone. The last shred of her life, her last hope. The only one who truly needed her. Because now, no one needed her, not the world, not her friends, not her family. As she wept, she didn't notice the small, silent figure moving down the stairs.

When she looked up she was startled to find little Wesley's hazel eyes staring back at her. For a moment she wondered if this was how Angel had looked as a child.

"Wesley…" she said trying to wipe away her tears with her hands that were sore from her workout.

The boy just looked at her and then pulled her hands away from her face.

"She's all right, you know," he said with a pity uncommon for children that young.

"What?" Buffy suddenly looked up. The boy sat down next to her. There was a long silence before she asked: "Wesley, what did you mean by that?"

"She's all right. She said I should tell you the lady takes care of her," Wesley said looking up at her.

"How…when-when did you see her?" her voice was shaking.

"This morning. She came to me while I was in school," he said.

"She's all right, she's all right," she began repeating uncontrollably, tears falling down her face. In the instinct of the moment she hugged the little boy to her chest almost crushing him in her embrace, but Wesley said nothing, for some reason it didn't really hurt him.

End Part 6


	8. Part 7

**Part 7**

_"Sometimes you bury secrets inside yourself and hide them from the world; you think they're only yours and no one knows them, but then one day someone so powerful shows himself and sees through you and you have nothing left to hide and all that's left is the bareness of your own soul"_

"Wesley, when did you see her?" Cordy asked from the kneeling position she had taken in front of the boy. It was morning and everyone was gathered in the lobby, back to researching. They had decided it was best to take Wesley out of kindergarten for the day, so he could tell them what he had seen.

"Yesterday, at school," the little boy said.

"Why didn't you say something earlier?" Wesley asked next to Cordelia.

"I…I don't know. Something didn't want me to tell you. I only had to tell Buffy, that's what I felt all the time," the boy said looking up. "I couldn't even tell uncle Lorne. I even sang a little, I wanted him to know, but he didn't hear it."

"Why didn't you tell me earlier, when you were alone, watching TV?" Buffy asked, her face still tear stained.

"I…I…don't know," the boy simply said. He was confused by the things he had felt himself. Usually he knew what he felt.

"Tell us what happened," Angel said softly bringing him back to what had happened the previous day.

"I went to the bathroom and then it got all dark. I couldn't see anything, it was like it never ended and then there was a light and I heard a song. It was Fatima. I knew it was her, before I heard that lady call her by her name. I know her, daddy," he said looking up at his father.

"Where from?" Buffy asked while Faith and Angel shared a worried look.

"Go on," Faith told him giving Buffy a look that meant she'd explain later.

"She said I should tell you the slayer lady takes care of her and then she called her, that lady," the boy added. "And she left with her."

"The slayer lady?" Wesley asked intrigued.

"Did you see her? This slayer lady?" Fred asked leaning down on the cushions.

"Barely. I saw a strange woman, painted, she didn't look human, she walked like a monkey," the boy said.

"I didn't see anything like that," Buffy was beginning to panic again.

"She was…you…" the boy didn't know if he should say the rest.

"What is it?" Buffy asked putting away her concern for just a second to clear the boy's confusion.

"But you did. See her," little Wesley said looking up.

"I didn't see any painted girl, Wes," Buffy said and the boy shook his head.

"Not now. Then," little Wes said and the others didn't seem to understand.

"Then?" Buffy asked puzzled.

"When did she see her?" Fred asked.

"A long time ago. In Sunnydale," the boy simply said. There was a long silence while Buffy tried to remember this painted woman.

"I…I can't remember," Buffy said after a while. "Did I fight her?" she looked towards the boy for an answer.

"No. You were her," the boy said, but after a moment decided to add: "You fought yourself."

"I fought myself…when… which…" Buffy started saying, she had fought herself so many times and in so many ways and shapes she couldn't tell which one it was when someone pointed it out.

"You don't remember…" little Wesley said disappointed. He sighed his little chest moving up, taking in a big breath of air. "I don't understand. When you were up there, in Aunt Fred's room, you remembered her."

"Stop talking in riddles. Just tell me who it is," Buffy's head seemed to spin, little Wesley's words making her dizzy, all those where's and who's floating in her mind.

"I'll do more then that. I'll show you," the boy said and Buffy fell, Angel barely managing to catch her before she did.

Time seemed to flow backwards and the memories were ripped out of her mind and heart, leaving her, once again empty and unsure of the future that was expecting her over the years. For some reason, it put a part of her at ease and she seemed happy here, somewhere deep in her own past, unaware of what was to come. She felt a strange desire of going back even more, to her childhood, the childhood before Dawn, before the ends she had lived in her life and sins and betrayal she had committed for the world. She wanted to be free, but time wouldn't go back anymore, it had stopped, in the hell that had been most of her life, in Sunnydale, in the house she had lived in as a teenager and later as an adult. She seemed to float above it and then through it inside the living room, where four so familiar people slept. Xander with the popcorn in his arms, Willow by his side and Giles…god, Giles, asleep in an armchair and there she herself sat, asleep and she knew somewhere, upstairs, her mother slept, so alive and her heart cried out for just one glance. She looked back down at her own tranquil face for a moment before she entered inside her dream world and found herself in the middle of a dessert.

"You think you know what's coming…" Tara's voice rang in her ears and she looked around trying to see her, but something jumped her. She fell, rolling down the sand dune with the woman still straddling her. Then suddenly, she was gone. She was still in that dessert, but this time it was real, not in her mind. It was night now and somewhere close a fire burnt and someone danced near it.

"Death is your gift," the voice of the prime slayer was heard and then it softened and turned into little Wesley's voice. "Death is your gift," he said again, only now for the first time the words seeming real. Her eyes fluttered open and she stared at the boy, that was now clutching Cordelia's skirt.

"Buffy, Buffy, are you okay?" Angel asked rising her off the floor where he had set her down.

"Yes, death is my gift," Buffy said standing up, shook up.

"What are you talking about?" Wesley asked confused by all that had happened. "What are you both talking about?" he looked back and forward between her and the boy.

"I know who this painted lady is," Buffy said nervously arranging her hair.

"So who is it?" Gunn asked curios.

"A Slayer. The first slayer," Buffy said.

"First slayer?" Faith asked surprised.

"I called on her once. On her power to destroy something I couldn't do myself. She…she haunted me, us, but then she was gone. And then a year later I searched for answers and they were shown through her. She spoke to me. She told me death was my gift," Buffy said.

"Talk about spirits giving you downers," Gunn noted.

"Did it make any sense in the end?" Cordy asked somewhat pensive.

"Oh, yeah. Remember when I killed myself?" Buffy asked.

"Oh," Cordy let out.

"This rules out the two slayer spirits theory. I think there's more to this then just ghosts," Wesley said trying to make out another possibility.

"But what?" Angel asked looking at his son for a moment before focusing back on their current problem.

"Well, until now, we know that uhm, three slayers are a part of this… entity," Wesley said pacing in front of them.

"But we don't know if that's all there is to it," Cordy continued. "Or what else is a part of it."

"Or what the hell does it want," Gunn finished.

"It has to have a reason. It doesn't just go and attack you randomly. Technically attacking," Fred said.

"It's personal. And there's nothing more personal for a slayer then another slayer," Faith noted.

"Oh, wait a minute," Fred said putting a hand up. "Remember what you said yesterday?" she addressed Faith. "About slayers feeling mocked because Buffy abandoned slaying?"

"Yeah, but that was just a theory," Faith said sitting down, while her son approached her, and quietly sat down next to her.

"Well I've got another one. Let's think about it. All the slayers had rules, right? Listen to the watcher, don't attach to anyone else, fight and be ready to die for the world. And so did you two. Except you didn't follow them. I mean you did follow them, but not by the book," Fred was already pacing while enthusiastically sharing her theory. "But no one held that against you as long as you did your job right. Then Buffy dies, she saves the world through it, and she becomes one of the slayer-heroes who sacrificed herself. Just another link in a long chain. But she's brought back even though she was suppose to remain dead. It's like this whole chain breaking apart. The harmony's gone."

"And that would be enough to piss a slayer off?" Faith asked while little Wesley watched the conversation fascinated.

"Buffy was the first slayer who really changed everything," Wesley said. "First of all she didn't keep her identity a secret…and she had friends."

"Yeah, that saved me a lot of times," Buffy said melancholically. "Spike told me once…" she hesitated for a moment. "Told me that I only lasted as long as I did because I had friends and a family."

"That's probably true," Wesley said gently. "And your fighting techniques were different. You fell in love with a vampire, which was never heard of," he chuckled slightly, remembering the commotion that piece of news had stirred back at the Watcher's Council. "In the end, you probably taught your watcher more things than he had taught you. You actually quit your 'job' from the Council. You changed a lot of things."

"Yeah, I did. But why me? Why not Faith? She's done at least half the things I've done, maybe worse," Buffy said. "No offense," she told Faith.

"None taken," Faith said.

"Because most of the things Faith did were after the Council, well, let's say fired her," Wesley said.

"Fired me, sent in a death squad, what ever," Faith said remembering the time she had fled trough LA trying to save her own life.

"She's officially erased from the record. As much as they're concerned, Faith was never a slayer, she was never called. They burnt any records that concerned her," Wesley said.

"They took away your strength?" Buffy looked over at Faith.

"Nope. They can't take it back. So now I'm no slayer, I'm just a freak of nature," Faith said, not minding the expression she had used to describe herself.

"I don't get it. I didn't work for the Council either, doesn't that mean I'm not a slayer anymore?" Buffy asked confused.

"There was a period you weren't, but when you died, you worked for the Council," Wesley reminded her.

"How do you know?" Buffy asked suddenly remembering that she had started working for the Council again so she could get information on Glory.

"We had a case and I asked the Council for help. They didn't want to take my call. Luckily I had a friend there who owed me a favor. He told me about you working for them again," Wesley said. "When you died, you were an official slayer which means that when you came back you were still a slayer, belonging to the Council. The fact that they probably don't consider you the slayer anymore doesn't change the fact that you were and are the slayer. And what ever happened to you after you died is still apart of your slayer life, because even though they called a new one, you were not absolved of your slayer duties," Wes finished his explanation.

"Why didn't they cancel her as a slayer?" Cordy asked her mind spinning from all the explanations.

"Because she earned a place between the slayers even if she fled in the end. She never did anything that might be considered shameful or something that might've stained the honor the Council feels needed in a slayer. Like say murder of an innocent," Wes looked at Faith who was beginning to feel uncomfortable in the middle of a discussion concerning shame, honor and the values of a slayer. "She's probably marked as lost in battle or that her body was never found. They don't confirm deaths that never took place just so they could come out with a clean record."

"But they choose the closest thing to it," Angel noted standing up.

"Precisely," Wesley said smiling.

"Okay, so let me get this straight. Three slayers are after Buffy because they're jealous that she got to do all the things they wanted to do, but didn't?" Cordy asked puzzled.

"What if it's all the slayers?" Fred suddenly asked and everyone looked towards her. "Wouldn't it make more sense? Why just three slayers, among which the first, would suddenly get jealous? And the nightmares would confirm that's not just three slayers we're dealing with."

"The first doesn't have to be something out of the ordinary. She's probably just still pissed she lost her fight with Buffy," Cordy said. "Besides why would she be jealous of Buffy? Because she didn't get to hang with the other cave girls? That she was forced to kill? Which she probably did anyway because she needed food."

"I don't think it's about the things they never managed to do," Fred said.

"Then what?" Cordy asked.

"If you think about it…would you come back from the beyond to haunt someone cause they did something you wanted to do in your life? It's ridiculous," Fred said.

"Good point," Wesley said sitting down. "So what are you suggesting?"

"Ethics. Like Faith said. Buffy left their righteous cause, she fled from her duties, which, without the intention, mocked the whole slayer kind," Fred said satisfied with what she had stated.

"Okay I get it, I offended a bunch of dead slayers, but why go after my daughter? Why didn't they just try to kill me and get it over it?" Buffy asked sighing, her head was hurting from all the sudden explanations that didn't really go anywhere.

"Obviously they would never try to kill you," Wesley dismissed the idea.

"Why not?" Buffy asked a little annoyed. She just wanted a simple answer, to fight a demon, get her daughter back and then her life would have a meaning again.

"Slayers don't kill humans, B, not the good ones anyway," Faith said and the boy bit his lip.

"You're a good slayer, mom," the boy told her and she smiled. A sad smile. "You are to me."

Faith didn't say a word, she just held on to that somewhat bitter smile for a few moments before returning to the conversation.

"She's right," Wesley agreed with her.

"Does that mean she's not in danger?" Buffy asked a clear hope in her voice.

"It's just a theory, Buffy. We can't be sure," Angel said while Buffy's hope seemed to vanish as fast as it had appeared.

"But if they won't hurt her, what would they want with her? Why would they take her away from me? She's just a child," Buffy said tears filling her eyes as the despair seemed to take over again.

"A lot of things," Angel said and everyone except Buffy and little Wes knew what he was thinking. There was a long moment of silence, everyone seeming lost in the past and the events that had crushed them for a while, then Angel spoke: "They can turn her against you."

"They…they…couldn't…" Buffy managed to mumble.

"They don't consider you worthy of being the slayer, and maybe not even a mother," Wesley said feeling like most of the people in the room, a painful deja-vu.

"But…ghosts can't raise children…" Buffy trailed off.

"We'll get her back, we'll find her," Gunn assured her while he gave Wesley a look that meant, give it a rest, we'll talk about it later.

"You should get some rest," Cordy stepped in.

"I don't want to get any freakin' rest, I want my daughter back!" Buffy burst into tears.

"We're still here, researching and when you wake up we'll have an answer," Fred told her trying to calm her down.

"You're not of any good to us like this," Faith told her, but Buffy didn't want to hear it. Little Wesley stood up and stopped in front of the slayer, his eyes staring into hers.

"Sleep," he simply said and Buffy fell limp in Fred's arms who had been sitting next to her.

"That was helpful," Gunn said not managing to hold back a small smile.

"Help!" Fred barely managed to hold Buffy on her feet. Wesley quickly caught the passed out slayer. "We should take her up to her room."

"Not that room," Angel said. "That's where she had the nightmares."

"Take her to my room," Cordy immediately said.

"I think I'm going to sleep too," little Wesley said, he wanted to avoid the questions for now. "I didn't sleep much yesterday."

"Okay, honey, momy'll take you up," Faith stood up taking her son into her arms. She climbed upstairs. Everyone watched her, not daring to ask anything once the boy had disappeared.

"I'll take her up," Angel said taking Buffy from Wesley's arms. When he was gone, Gunn let out the question everyone had on their lips:

"What the hell happened? I thought it's suppose to show only when he was older."

"I guess the Oracles aren't all that accurate anymore," Cordy said sighing. "This is getting way too complicated. With Buffy I mean."

"Yes, I don't know if we can really help her. Not unless we get some kind of precise spot," Wesley said. "Since they're ghosts they can be anywhere from next door to China and that's if you don't count other dimensions."

"We have to help her somehow," Fred said feeling sorry for the slayer and remembering Angel's sorrow over the loss of his first son.

"I'm gonna' check in with the Oracles," Cordy said.

"You think you should? After last time…" Gunn reminded her of a very unpleasant meeting she had with the Oracles for one of their clients a few months ago, that had ended with an actual un-intentional fight – Cordy had been so angry she had thrown the Oracles across their temple – which of course ended up with Cordy being turned in a mouse for a day.

"Well, let's just hope they're not angry anymore. I'd hate to spend another day eating cheese in a cage," Cordy said. She knew they had no chance of helping Buffy out without a little divine intervention.

"Are you angry with me?" the boy asked her mother as she tucked him in.

"I could never be angry with you," Faith said gently stroking his hair. "You're my baby, aren't you?"

"Yeah…" he hesitated for a moment. "But… aren't you mad because I didn't tell you?"

"No, I'm just a little upset you thought you couldn't trust us," Faith said smiling.

"I did want to tell you, a lot of times! I did… I was just scared that…that you wouldn't love me anymore," the boy said. Faith laughed. A comforting, warm laughter.

"I could never stop loving you. And don't you forget that, no matter what you'll do in your life, you'll always be my son and I'll always love you, okay?" she said and the boy stood up and hugged her. "Besides our little family is anything but normal."

"I love you, mom," the boy said.

"I love you too," Faith said, a smile crossing her lips, not hiding any anger, evilness or sadness behind it, just a simple happy smile. "Now, rest," she tucked him in again. She was about to leave when the boy said:

"Tell me a story," she turned back towards him and even though she knew there were problems more urgent to attend to, she sat back down on the edge of the bed.

"What kind of story?" she asked.

"A scary story with a happy end," the boy said, he loved his mother's stories.

"Okay, there was once a vampire, a very evil vampire. He was so old that his hands and feet were split in three and he always had that ugly vampire face on. He liked to kill slayers, but one day he met one who wasn't all that easy to kill, she had an edge…"

He put her down on Cordelia's bed, thinking how ironic it was that the only moment they were alone, she was passed out. Why was she so afraid to talk to him? He didn't understand. Maybe he was scary in some way, so different she couldn't recognize the Angel she knew anymore. Thinking back to Sunnydale and then across the years and all the events that had scarred him in so many different ways, he realized he was a different man from the one she had fallen in love with. He had gone through so many stages, he had seen other worlds, dealt so many times with his own fears and past, he had known great pain and lost someone close to his heart and yes, he had found out love existed beyond the image of his first love. He looked back down at her and pulled the hair from her face. 'Poor thing' he thought while he wiped away the tears that still fell down her face.

"Fatima…" she mouthed in her sleep turning away from him. He wondered where her daughter was and he hoped he would get her back for her. It was the least he could do for her after all she had done for him. He watched her for a moment. A smile crossed his lips remembering the many times he had watched her sleep.

"God…" he let out, his head seemed to hurt whenever he tried to recall that period of his life. It was so distant. Then again his head always hurt when he thought mostly of the last decade, the rest he could remember with astonishing clarity, every brutal detail of his demon, it always made his soul cry, but it was never overwhelming, but those last ten years…an on slaught tornado of pain and happiness. It had all started in a back alley a long long time ago and had yet to end. He stood there on the edge of that bed and began remembering everything from that day on, for the first time trying not to feel the headache, because she was there and she was alive and that was all that mattered. Life.

He was somewhere in a room, a dark room with many doors. He opened one and saw a low bed, the kind the Japanese had and next to it a girl stood, young, beautiful, combing her hair in front of a mirror. She turned and smiled at him, bowing her head slightly. He smiled back before closing the door and going back into the black room. He was trying to figure out what he was looking for when he heard the voices. Two child-like voices singing, their hands clapping together in a game. He followed the sound down a darker corridor. He went past many doors, knowing there was nothing inside that would interest him.

He stopped in front of a door, cheerfully painted in rainbow colors. He made a little grimace, he didn't like painted rainbows, only the real ones, they were magic to him. He opened the door. It wasn't a room, there were no walls just an endless plane. It wasn't sunny though, it was dark, like everything in that world. He spotted the two little girls playing their game while singing a little farther away from him. They stopped when they saw him. He recognized Fatima instantly. The other girl he didn't know. She let go of Fatima's hand and disappeared into the darkness.

"Why am I here?" he asked and Fatima sat down on the grass not minding that her white dress might get stained.

"You don't know," she said disappointed. "Maybe this is a mistake" she stood up and she was about to walk away.

"Don't go" the boy said and the girl stopped.

"Why?" she asked.

"I don't want to be alone in the dark. It's scary," little Wesley said.

"You're not afraid of the dark," the girl reminded him, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Yes I am" he lied.

"Don't try to lie to me. You know I can see inside you," the girl warned him.

"But there is a reason you called me here. That I know" he said sitting down on the grass in front of her.

"You know a lot of things" she said sitting back down.

"So do you. But we know different things" the boy said and after a moment he added: "I thought you were normal."

"So what? I'm not smart like you?" the girl was about to stand up again but oddly found herself enable to move. "Stop doing that."

"You are normal" Wesley realized.

"For now" Fatima said letting go of the idea of standing up. "I don't know if I still am. They said something…"

"The slayers?"

"How do you know about them? I thought I only told you about the slayer lady" Fatima asked confused.

"Your mom found that out" Wesley said.

"Is she okay?" Fatima asked hesitating for a moment.

"She's sad and worried and scared. You have to come back" he told her.

"I…I miss her too, but they take care of me and they play with me…and they make me dresses and they showed me so many things! Things like…like in the fairy tales. I don't want to go back" Fatima said wishing there was some way her mother could be there too, but strangely Wesley was the only person she could communicate with. Why she didn't understand.

"There's magic out in the world too. You just don't know about it," Wes told her. "It's not all good, but it's there."

"I know, but I don't want the bad one, I just want the good one" Fatima said. "I don't want the monsters that killed them, I don't want the magic that brought them to their graves."

"You're a baby," Wesley said, cross.

"Why? Is it really that wrong to want to live here?" Fatima asked trying to tempt him to this world.

"I don't want to be anywhere where they're not," Wesley told her. "That's why you're still a baby. You don't know how much you can hurt people by disappearing."

"You think you're so smart. So great. You don't know anything. You think they love you?" she stood up and began pacing in front of him. "You?" she repeated in a mocking voice. "You don't even know what you are. You're a little monster and you didn't tell them that, did you? Do you think they can love you? They don't love you. They loved him, not you," a shadow of a young man appeared behind her.

"Words can't hurt me," the boy didn't move from the ground. "Whatever you say" he shook his head. "I know better. I might be a monster, but I can see inside your soul. As for him," he looked at the shadow behind her. "Connor," the shadow took the form of Angel's first son. "A long time ago, he mattered" Connor disappeared. "Why did you call me here?"

"I wanted you to stay with me…"

"I can't. I don't want to be here," the boy cut her off.

"Why? You're different too. You want to stay out there and be called names just because you're different? You're magic. Like me," Fatima said looking down at him.

"No one called me names" the boy said.

"Not yet. You go to a special school, for special children. They're not aloud to, because they're all different."

"I don't care. I like my school. My family's different."

"Not like you," Fatima assured him.

"Why me?" little Wesley suddenly asked.

"You're the only one I could get to. From here. I can see inside you. It's strange."

"In the beginning, but it'll pass, with the time."

"You feel this all the time?"

"Not anymore."

"Explain to me what's happening. Where am I? Why do I know so much?"

"I don't know. No one told me either. I was born this way I guess."

"And I was made."

"You want to go home?"

"I don't know. Home just doesn't feel like it's suppose to anymore. You have to go"

"But…" he wanted to talk to her a little more.

"They say that if you stay here longer, you'll be here forever," Fatima said turning away from him for a moment to hear what the voices were whispering.

"How do I leave?" he asked.

"Just close your eyes," the girl smiled. "I wish you would've stayed with me. Maybe I'll see you again."

"I know I will," the boy said before closing his eyes. When he opened them he was staring at the door of his own room. He was sitting down on the floor. "What now?" he asked himself while he got up.

"Where are you going?" Angel asked when he saw Cordy had her jacket on and was about to head for the door.

"I'm going to see the Oracles," Cordy said.

"No, you don't" Angel beat her to the door.

"Look, we've been through all kind of possibilities and this is the only one that makes any sense at all," Cordy said. She had expected this to happen.

"Angel, we've talked and we agreed that…" Wesley started, but Angel cut him off.

"Well we're gonna' talk some more," he said grabbing Cordy by the hand and dragging her back to the couch.

"Au!" Cordy hit him over the shoulder before rubbing her sore wrist. "You don't need to get rough."

"Statistically speaking, if we don't get the littlest clue, are chances are one to more then a billion, not counting all the geographical spots on the planet or the few millions of dimensions out there," Fred said sighing.

"I know what you're thinking…" Wesley started, knowing Angel was somehow linking Fatima's kidnapping with that of Connor. "But then we knew where he was, now we don't know a thing, besides the fact that it has something to do with slayers. I think they didn't take her out of this world and probably no harm came to her."

"Then I'm going to the Oracles," Angel said.

"You're banned from the Oracles, remember?" Cordy reminded him.

"Interesting how you can be the champion for the Powers That Be and not have access to their Oracles," Angel said.

"I get them. Last time you turned you burnt down what was it? Four? Five of their temples?" Gunn asked.

"Yeah and since no one here is considered a warrior, an official one anyway, except me…" Cordy said, while Faith climbed downstairs pretty much understanding what they were arguing about.

"You can't beat that," Faith said smiling. "Let her go," she told Angel. "Just make sure you don't come back a rat again, cause I'll kick your fury little behind if you do, okay?"

"What a comforting thought," Cordy said before leaving.

"Ten to one, I say she doesn't stand a chance," Gunn said once the door was shut behind her. "Do we still have that little cage?"

"Yeah. Heaven sakes we didn't keep that cat," Fred said.

"Well, that's only because it turned out to be a metamorphosing demon," Wesley reminded her.

"Oh, yeah," Fred said suddenly remembering.

"Don't get the rat cages out just yet, she might just make it," Faith said smiling.

"Hello?" Cordy said walking into the temple after she had been thrown inside by the portal.

"Oh, look, it's the vicious little one," the female Oracle said, slightly amused. "What do you want from us?"

"Do you miss being a mouse?" the male Oracle asked.

"I know we had our differences…" Cordy started.

"Differences? Is that what you call violence in a sacred place?" the woman asked.

"That's beyond the point…"

"Whose point?" the male Oracle cut her off.

"What point?" the woman joined in.

"People…warriors come here for help…"

"Precisely. Why didn't you search for the same?" the male Oracle interrupted her again.

"I need help. I didn't want to come, but someone needs help. Someone close to me," Cordy said finally managing to finish a phrase.

"Your vampire friend?" the female Oracle asked. "And we wondered where you got such rude manners from."

"No, it's not about him," Cordy ignored her comment. "An older friend. A slayer."

"The old one, the oldest," the female oracle sang.

"Yeah. Her daughter is missing. Where is she?" Cordy asked.

"Such things, they're not for us to tell" the male oracle said. "But you have to understand, it's not about the little girl."

"It's the mother," the woman said. "They don't really want the girl. They want the mother to come to them."

"Where are they?" Cordy asked. "Cause if they're suppose to leave some kind of trail for her to follow they're doing a horrible job at it."

"To find them she has to see herself again, her roots," the male Oracle said.

"Her roots are the way to her daughter. She'll find her only listening to her blood," the female Oracle said.

"We have answered your questions, now leave," the male Oracle added.

"That's it?" Cordy asked, but before she could say anything else she found herself back in the hallway of the post office. "Well that was a big freakin' help! Thank you!" she yelled angry.

"She's not a rat. That's a good sign," Fred said as Cordy came in the lobby.

"Well?" Angel asked relieved she had made it out safe.

"Not really much help. You know how they are. They work in mysterious ways and unfortunately talk just as mysteriously. Basically they mentioned something about her roots. The slayers are after her, not her daughter and they're using her as bait. That's what I got out of it," Cordy said.

"So about the roots?" Wesley asked pondering the possibilities.

"Once she goes back to her roots she'll be able to find them," Cordy said sitting down and rubbing her sore back.

"Her roots…Sunnydale," Gunn immediately jumped.

"That would make sense, if they meant it literally," Cordy said. "Her initial roots would be in LA though, where she was born, then Sunnydale."

"What if it's the root of all slayers? The Slayer's Council or where ever the first slayer appeared," Faith suggested.

"At least we have it narrowed down," Fred pointed out.

"If she's suppose to find her daughter, she's the one who has to find an answer, not us," Wesley concluded.

"Fine, so we wait for her to wake up, then we'll see where we go from here," Gunn said.

"We're definitely making progress," Wesley stated satisfied.

"You think we should wake her up?" Faith asked sighing.

"No, let her sleep," Angel said. "She needs to rest and we have some urgent cases to attend to. And unfortunately we're the only ones who can handle them."

"God. Why don't people get a clue and build another agency? But no, they rather be fighting in the streets cause that's way cooler," Cordy protested. "So what do we have?"

"A vampire's nest two streets down from the theater, your theater," Angel looked over at Cordy. "Something slimy's been growing in the kitchen at Pedro's Pizza Palace. Probably a Veska laid its eggs there and they're about to hatch."

"And a couple conjured up a Gahni demon and now he's become a bit of a pest," Wesley remembered. "They came yesterday, but in all the commotion I forgot to mention it."

"We'll have to split up. Me and Faith, we'll hit the nest. Cordy and Gunn can handle the Gahni and Wes can go after the Veska, I don't think they're hatched yet, so you won't have any problems."

"What about me?" Fred asked.

"Someone has to stay here. To watch over Buffy and Wes," Angel said.

"Dennis is here," Fred protested.

"Yeah, but Dennis can't call in case of trouble," Angel reminded her.

"But if anyone's having a hard time, call, okay?" Fred gave up and let them leave. "I guess it's just you and me, Dennis" she said sighing. The ghost pulled up a chair for her in sign of agreement. "How about some poker? If you promise not to peak."

"So you see, I didn't stand a chance!" the girl paced around the room, her dress moving gently around her hips as she walked. "I was alone among them…" she sighed. "Three were coming from the left, two in front of me, and the leader was behind me. In the beginning I thought I could fight them off, but they were stronger, stronger then I had ever known. I think they drank some kind of potion to make them invincible. I couldn't beat them and Ralph was upset with me and I just…" she laughed. "Well died," her short laughter had disappeared as fast as it had appeared. "When I was falling I just thought, it's all a nightmare, my dad would wake me up in the morning. 'Wake up sleepy head' he'd say and I'd put my pillow on my head and ask for five more minutes. And then he'd tell me 'You think Jackie asks for five more minutes?' and I'd get up immediately. Jackie Kennedy was my role model. She was so pretty" she played absently with the pearls around her neck. "Did you have a role model?" she looked down at the sleeping slayer. "Of course not, you were too strong to have a role model. Strong people don't need role models. Weak ones do. I guess I was weak. Poor Ralph, crying over my grave for days. He stood in the sun and in the rain and got pneumonia and didn't care," she sighed again as her body seemed to float above the floor, just a few inches and she morphed into another girl, taller this time, with dark hair and big cold blue eyes. She made a disgusted grimace at the emotional confession of the previous slayer.

"I was the rose of Russia. Every demon feared my name. Katiuska. Everybody knew it in mighty Sankt Petersburg and everything evil trembled in front me and the people… they loved me because I kept them safe. I was their champion. One day a man came to us, a simple man we thought, but this was no ordinary man…"

_Sankt Petersburg_

_1736_

"He lies," Katiuska paced in front of her watcher.

"I told you not to consider yourself invincible," the watcher said rubbing his tired eyes.

"Written words! Ah! How can you believe in such nonsense?" she said exasperated.

"They're prophecies, they foretold the deaths of many slayers before you, you can't just ignore it," William Brown looked at the parchment neatly folded on the table.

"I won't fear words!" Katiuska hit the table with her fist.

"Maybe we can prevented it… Somehow" he tried to convince himself more then his slayer.

"Be sure we will…" the slayer said.

"Well?" the tall slim man that had brought them the prophecies entered the room. He had thin lips that barely moved when he spoke. His eyes were strange though, flickering in all directions, never standing still as if they never belonged to that body.

"But you see it wasn't just the eyes, when he moved, he was like a serpent, slithering along the way. I thought he was a demon, but when Will recognized him as an old friend, I thought it was just my imagination, that he always walked like that. But I was right from the very beginning…"

_1736_

_Sankt Petersburg_

She was coming back from slaying. She hadn't encountered much, just a few freshly risen vampires. She would've wanted more, she needed something more tonight, a bigger challenge to show her she was still invincible and that prophecies were just fairytales, but unfortunately three vampires was all she got.

She entered the little house lost in thought. 'What if the prophecies were right? What then?' She smiled when she saw her watcher with his head on the table and a wooden cup in his hand, the vodka bottle resting near it.

"You and your old camarad had many things to catch up with, no?" she shook her head when her watcher didn't answer. "Englishmen! One cup of vodka and they're done with. Up you go," she rose the body of her watcher in her arms. "Time to get you to bed."

She dragged him to his bed, only then noticing he was cold, his face so pale.

"Will!" she tried to wake him up. "Will! Will!" she slapped him across the face, she pored cold water over him, but no response, he was dead. "Wake up, old man, don't leave me now."

"I'm afraid, our English friend does not take vodka well," the tall man slithered out of the shadows. "I do not blame him… I wouldn't take arsenic well either."

"You!" Katiuska left the side of her dead watcher and advanced menacingly towards the man. "You will die for this!"

"Would you kill a man, little slayer?" he asked, while he touched the finger tips of his hands together. It was enough for Katiuska to notice the skin cracked on his fingers and the green skin that hid behind it.

"You are not human!" she attacked with a rage uncommon for her. Usually she was a calm, calculated person.

"He had killed Will's friend after he found out he was the keeper of the prophecies. He dressed in his skin and came to us," for the first time there was hesitation in her strong voice. "I was a slayer for…almost five years. I don't know why I lost, I don't think he was stronger… I don't think so. They told me it was written. Words!" she made a laughing sound before her form disappeared and was replaced by another.

A sad smile crossed the figure's lips. She paced for a moment, undecided on what she wanted to say. She moved towards the bed, taking a big unnecessary breath of air - she wasn't use to not breathing just yet. Looking down at the slayer, she recalled her memories of her and felt like saying so many things, but instead she simply said:

"Hi, Buffy."

"Kendra?" Buffy suddenly stood up in time to see her fade away. Just the mentioning of her name and her frail image had caused a shock to pass through her body, recalling the slayer of who's death she held herself responsible. "Kendra?" she asked again, but the shadow was gone.

End Part 7


	9. Part 8

**Part 8**

_"They were fighting for the future, but the past seemed to reach out for them, from the bottom of all hells, covering them like a mist and soon they found themselves wondering in the fog again, blinder then before"_

Fred was reading one of Cordelia's many fashion magazines. She wasn't really fond of fancy clothes like Cordy but now and then she liked to browse through magazines and check out the latest trends. She was so concentrated she didn't hear Buffy coming downstairs.

"Fred?" Buffy asked. Fred startled at the sudden noise. "Sorry."

"It's okay, I was just reading some magazines…" Fred's voice trailed off when she noticed the state Buffy was in, her face pale, her eyes lost. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah…I just… the dreams, they came back," Buffy said in a weak voice.

"Really? How did they manifest themselves?" Fred immediately asked. It was like an instinct that had grown on her along the years.

"Other slayers," Buffy simply said.

"Oh," Fred understood she really didn't want to talk about it.

"Where's everyone?" Buffy asked noticing they were all alone in the hotel.

"Out chasing demons. They didn't want to wake you to tell you the news," Fred said.

"What news?" Buffy jumped.

"We found out something. Cordy did actually. She went to the Oracles and they said you have to find your roots in order to find your daughter," Fred said.

"Sunnydale. We have to go to Sunnydale," Buffy whispered. "Now, we're going to Sunnydale."

She walked towards the door. She was about to walk out of the hotel when Fred stopped her.

"You want to go all by yourself? On foot?" she asked and Buffy froze in her place. "They'll be back soon, don't worry." Resigned, Buffy returned to the table, the door shutting behind her, pushed by Dennis. "You have to understand them."

"I know, you help the helpless," Buffy said. "Hmm, maybe I should've made an agency too."

"Yeah, like this you don't have to look for trouble, it comes directly to you. Though if I really think about it, we've caused like half the trouble we ran into. I always remember what Connor use to say…"

"Connor?" Buffy asked confused.

"Angel's first son," Fred said before she realized Buffy didn't know about him.

"He had another son?" Buffy asked surprised.

"Uhm…yeah, with Darla. But that was a one night stand gone bad and a lot of prophecies. He was a great guy…eventually," Fred said. "So he spend a part of his life in a hell dimension and was raised to hate Angel by this revenge thirsty old man whose family Angel killed when he was bad."

"Oh," Buffy simply said, still trying to understand all the things she had explained. "A lot of things happened since I last saw Angel."

"Things always change. I know it best. I was stuck in a demon dimension for five years, made me more then just a little wacky, but hey, now I'm back to my old self, if you don't count the massive obsession for tacos I have. And it's not just that. At first, when I came back, I was head over heals in love with Angel, then when I realized there could be nothing between us, I thought Angel and Cordy were meant for each other," she saw a shadow pass across Buffy's face. "But even if I thought they were, it turned out to be impossible and they just turned back to being friends, even if it hurt. Same story with me and Gunn…" her voice trailed off for a moment. "Except for us it wasn't impossible and I didn't come back from a higher type of existence for him. Maybe it was just too perfect. In the beginning I thought we were going to last, I knew we would, but in the end, I don't know what happened."

"I know the feeling. I dated someone like that, just too good to be true. I always looked for flaws and I think I was actually the one pushing him to commit them," Buffy said nostalgic.

"What happened to him?" Fred asked.

"He married Lara Croft," Buffy said. "And I let Spike down my pants."

"Oh," Fred said.

"And believe me I know a lot about changes, been through a billion of 'em. I guess it's just scary to see them on someone else. Especially someone you cared about. I've actually seen it on my friends, my family, but with them I was there from the first change to the very last…it wasn't that weird."

"I'd freak too if I left a broody ex and after 10 years found a happy camper instead," Fred said nodding. Buffy laughed, she was right. It was good to laugh again, even if the weight wasn't lifted from her heart, it was still there, like a rock trying to crush her.

"So how does it feel… Cordy and Gunn?" Buffy asked after she stopped laughing.

"Mostly strange, but it passes, with the time," Fred said. "With time changes become normal."

"I get that," Buffy nodded in agreement.

"Hello, ladies," Gunn came in carrying his ax behind. A tired Cordelia followed him.

"This is getting more and more exhausting every time, I'm getting too old for this," Cordy said catching her breath. "Maybe I should hang up the old ax and get back to office work."

"What are you talking about, you old? Get out of here!" Gunn laughed at the very thought. "You just haven't been in action for a while. You stepped out the last couple of cases, doing the desk job and all."

"So can we go now?" Buffy looked desperately at Fred.

"We have to wait for Angel," Fred told her.

"You told her," Cordy realized by the face Buffy made. "So I guess we're going to Sunnydale. My skin just crawls at the thought."

"Why?" Fred asked as if she didn't know.

"Hello, where do you think I have most of my childhood traumas from? And not necessarily because of the monsters," Cordy added.

"Well, you'll have to make a sacrifice," Fred said, serious.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Crodelia sighed.

"You're not the only one who has to go back to a whole lot of memories," Buffy said silently.

"I know," Cordy said. "Maybe we get lucky and Sunnydale was wiped off the map of the world. I always thought that would happen if you weren't around anymore."

"I hope not," Buffy simply said, while Wesley appeared in the lobby, covered in slime from head to toe.

"What happened to you?" Fred asked smiling, holding back the laughter.

"Well, the eggs exploded when I was about to burn them…" Wesley started.

"They hatched?" Cordy asked handing him a towel.

"Exploded," Wesley said again. "And these little things started crawling all over the place. Didn't look like no baby Veskas to me."

"So what did you do?" Gunn asked.

"I squashed the little buggers," Wesley said while helplessly trying to clean his face. "Now if you'll pardon me I'll go shower in hope I can still scrub all the slime off my skin."

"No!" Buffy suddenly jumped. "We have to go to Sunnydale, there's no time."

"You told her," Wesley looked at Fred who smiled innocently. "Don't worry, Buffy, it's just a quick shower, it won't take forever," he climbed upstairs.

"That's what he thinks," Fred said after he had disappeared. "Gogra slime needs citric acid to be removed from skin before it gives hives. I didn't want to upset him."

"Let's hope we still have that extra crate of lemons Angel got from Europe," Cordy said immediately heading for the basement in search of that certain crate.

"Angel got lemons as a present?" Buffy asked amused.

"It was sort of a joke," Gunn said. "Gregor, always considered him to be sour as a lemon, so after we helped him with a problem…as a…gift he sent us all kind of fruits and stuff from his farm."

"Among which a crate of lemons especially addressed to Angel," Fred completed. She sighed. "Oh, take me back to Greece any day!"

"You went to Greece?" Buffy asked dreamingly.

"Yeah, that's where Gregor was from," Gunn said. "It was awesome."

"Is this going to be enough?" Cordy asked coming up with an arm full of lemons. "Couldn't carry the whole crate. It's huge."

"I think so," Fred said.

"Okay, then go tell Wesley," Cordy spilled the lemons into Fred's arms. "And here's a knife to cut them," she slipped a dagger into one of Fred's hands.

"Why me?" Fred asked, barely holding all the lemons in her embrace.

"You're the one who's comfortable with Wesley nudity, not us," Cordy said and Fred let out an exasperated sound.

"Oh, for god's sakes, like we didn't see each other naked when that mad doctor wanted to put us in cryogenic stasis," Fred said and Cordy shuttered.

"Yes, but must you remind us?" Cordy asked.

"Worst cold I ever got," Gunn remembered too.

"Just go, Fred," Cordy said and Fred climbed up mumbling something she couldn't understand. "I hate it when she talks pylean around us."

"It only bothers you cause you don't get squat of what she's saying," Gunn said smiling.

"Hey," a sleepy voice greeted them. Little Wesley was coming downstairs, even though he was dressed, his hair was a mess.

"Hey yourself, sleepy head," Cordy smiled.

"Where's mom?" he asked looking around, noticing his mother's absence.

"Mommy and daddy are out hunting vampires," Gunn said.

"What's aunt Fred doing with all the lemons?" the boy asked sitting down.

"Helping uncle Wesley with a skin problem," Cordy smiled.

"Oh," the boy let out rubbing his eyes, he obviously hadn't slept well.

"Hungry?" Gunn asked and the boy nodded. He took Gunn's hand and they went into the kitchen.

"Cordy, what's Wesley? I mean he can…" Buffy didn't know how to put it into words.

"Read minds?" Cordy understood what she meant, but had trouble putting Wesley's abilities in a certain category herself.

"Yeah, something like," Buffy settled for that option.

"Well you didn't expect a vampire and a slayer to have a normal kid did you?" Cordy asked. "At least he wasn't prophesied like…"

"Connor?" Buffy asked and Cordy was surprised she knew. "Fred told me."

"Oh. Well Connor was sort of normal, you know except for the strength and great fighting techniques, Wesley on the other hand is what you'd call a brain child," Cordy explained. "He's suppose to have great mental powers…telekinetic, mind reading, that sort of thing."

"You seemed a little surprised this morning," Buffy remembered.

"Because it's suppose to show only when he'll be a teenager, when he turns fifteen or something like that. We never mentioned that we knew about his powers, so he was probably too scared to tell us. We always knew, but we just weren't ready for it," Cordy thought.

"And he just kept it for himself? It must've been hard on him. He's only a child," Buffy said thinking of her Fatima.

"Sometimes he is, sometimes I feel like he's older then me," Cordy said. "I keep thinking maybe it's because of Angel being so old, maybe he got some of that…oldness. I keep on expecting him to suddenly grow up into a man…But that's just the Connor consequence."

"What happened to Connor?" Buffy suddenly asked.

"He's gone," Cordy simply said.

"Dead?"

"Left," Cordy corrected her. "I'm not exactly sure where he is right now. He went out to find 'a real place in the world' that's what he called it. He promised us he'll come back to tell us when he'll find that place. Angel understood him, gave him the whole blessing. He was better off with us if you ask me, but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do."

"Doesn't he call? Or write?" Buffy found the whole idea ridiculous.

"Very rarely. I think we got one phone call, 2 letters and a postcard in like 7 years. The postcard being the last one, it came 2 or 3 years ago. Angel's still hoping he'll come back, his room's untouched. Sometimes I catch him just standing there. I don't think he'll ever be back though. Not here."

"That's sad," Buffy was truly saddened by her words.

"He already lost a son, that's why he's so afraid for Wesley. He's scared that when he'll get his powers he'll wind up getting too tired of fighting and he'll leave forever, but Wes isn't like that. Connor was, but not him," Cordy said, a bad feeling from the past overcoming her. Sometimes she just wished she could forget that whole period when Connor was around.

There was a moment of silence while Cordelia looked at Buffy hesitating. Should she tell her and get it over with?

"I'm half-demon," she suddenly said.

"Huh?" Buffy was distracted for a moment.

"I'm a half-demon. I can float and clean auras," Cordy said in a breath.

"Clean auras?" Buffy repeated. "Auras need to be cleaned?"

"If you've been in hell dimensions, yeah," Cordy said, happy the news hadn't shocked Buffy as she expected.

"I've been in one. My aura didn't seem dirty after," Buffy remembered.

"Well you have to be in one for a long time for it to really affect you, the aura…the soul gets intoxicated, absorbs the ugliness of the place" Cordy explained. She sat down on the couch before telling her: "Give me your hand."

Buffy looked at her doubtfully.

"C'mon, I don't bite," Cordy said.

"Angel said that once," Buffy smiled and sitting down next to her, gave Cordy her hand. Cordelia closed her eyes and a white glow enveloped her and then slowly passed over to Buffy. It lasted a few seconds before it faded away.

"Wow," Buffy said, a lazy smile crossing her lips. "That was…amazing! A person could get use to a feeling like that."

"Tell me about it, Angel's practically addicted to it," Cordy smiled too. "You have an interesting soul."

"I'll take your word on that. Definitely needed a clean-up," Buffy said.

"Had a few spots," Cordy agreed. "I saw something…"

"What?" Buffy asked surprised.

"I don't know, I don't usually see things…but there was this bright light. It was so warm and...uhm, comforting I couldn't stay away from it," Cordy said confused.

"Oh, that light…I thought I must still have it somewhere."

"What was that, Buffy?" Cordy asked.

"That… was heaven, a part of it, a memory," Buffy said rubbing her face, tired.

"Doesn't it bother you that I'm a half-demon?" Cordy changed the subject.

"Hell no, you seem to forget the variety of friends I had," Buffy laughed at the thought. "Besides since when do you care?"

"Since when do I care?" it suddenly hit Cordy she had been ridiculous about the whole thing.

"I think he'll be a while," Fred came downstairs smiling. "His skin was already itching."

"Please, spare us the details," Cordy put up a hand.

"I haven't seen him this red since Angel 'forgave' him," Fred said pressing on the word 'forgave'.

"What?" Buffy asked confused.

"Wesley flew solo for a while. Actually a couple of years. He stole Connor when he was a baby thinking – because of this bogus prophecy – Angel was going to kill his son. And that lead to Connor being kidnapped by Holtz and taken to hell so Angel was really pissed. He attacked Wes when he was in the hospital. We tried to get Angel to forgive him, but--" Cordy explained.

"You know how stubborn Angel is. So after Connor left, we finally talked him into it seeing Wes again. Wesley got the stupid idea of telling him to punch out his differences while he didn't budge," Fred continued. "He probably thought he wouldn't do it…"

"Big mistake. He beat the crap out of him," Cordy concluded. "But then they talked things over and over and over… and eventually Angel forgave him or at least he said so. I think he only **really** forgave him when he stood by Faith when she gave birth."

"Wow," Buffy let out.

"Wow what?" Faith came in limping.

"What happened to you?" Cordy asked.

"Nasty vampire woke up before he should," Faith said wincing in pain. "I got a nasty cut."

Angel appeared next to her, his left arm badly burnt. Before anyone could ask Faith said:

"I broke a window."

"And I was standing right in front of it," Angel added.

"Looks pretty bad," Fred said.

"It'll heal. It'll be gone in a few hours," Angel assured her.

"Sure you don't need first aid or something?" Cordy asked him.

"Yeah," Angel said.

"But I sure would," Faith said throwing herself on the couch.

"I'll get the kit," Fred left the room.

"So what've you girls been gossiping about?" Faith asked as she pulled the pants up from her left leg. She had an ugly wound starting from under her knee going down her leg, it was pretty deep.

"Well you know, nothing and everything," Cordy said vaguely.

"Thank you for enlightening me," Faith said smiling. Fred returned with the first aid kit and started cleaning Faith's wound. She feared that it was so deep the bone showed.

"Can we go now?" Buffy suddenly asked.

"You told her," Angel looked at Cordy.

"She told her," Cordy pointed towards Fred.

"I think I'll have to sit this one out," Faith said. "A limping slayer is not a helping slayer to have around."

"It'll close in an hour," Buffy dismissed her excuse.

"I don't think it will. It's gonna take more then a couple of hours. It's deep," Fred said.

"Someone has to sit and watch Wes anyway. Just give those slayers a kick for me, okay?" Faith looked at Buffy and smiled.

"I'll just go change and we'll leave, all right?" Angel gave Buffy a comforting look.

"Okay," Buffy said, then added a bit uncomfortable. "Can you make it by sunlight?"

"Oh, almost forgot about that," Angel admitted, though it was hard to believe he forgot when his arm was still smoking.

"We use this sunlight block spell for emergencies. It lasts around 48 hours," Fred explained.

"And this is an emergency," Angel said giving Buffy a warm smile.

"I think Wesley might be skipping the trip too," Fred suddenly said.

"Why?" Angel stopped hallway up the stairs.

"He got rashes all over. Those Veskas turned out to be Gogras. You know the ones with the acid slime?" Fred said and Angel made a grimace.

"I guess it's just the five of us," Angel said before continuing upstairs.

"Yeah, just us," Buffy repeated. She was impatient to leave, but the thought of returning to Sunnydale gave her goose bumps.

Sunnydale seemed beaten down by time, the years had left their ugly mark upon it. Some of the houses they use to pass by on their way to school, seemed wrecked and abandoned, the paint faded, covered in weeds, only few remaining at their old glory. The Sunnydale Highschool stood tall and proud, as it had since the day it had been rebuilt, seeming to promise that this time nothing and no one could tear it down, not even dynamite, not even snake-like demons. Oh, how many stories it held under its new walls, under the rubble, under the earth. How many had found their doom in its hallways? How many had survived? How many had Buffy saved, how many witches had found their power here besides one redhead everyone had loved? How many demons had lost their powers like Anyanka? And how many lost teenagers still tried to make it out alive of Sunnydale High? The answer to all these questions was simple: many. The car passed by the old highschool with Cordy and Buffy still staring after its ghostly shadow, lost in thoughts.

They passed by the Bronze to find it in ruin, the once bright sign of the club being broken and dark, only the word Bonz remaining on it. It seemed that Sunnydale had left its number one club for another and the place where 'Dingoes ate my baby' played a long time ago was abandoned.

The Magic Box on the other hand was bright and cheery and Buffy shook her head. She asked herself how many more shop owners had died during the last years. No one could own the magic shop too long without being killed or attacked at some point. Even Giles had had his share of misfortunes when he had taken over the business.

Buffy was getting nervous, they were nearing her old house and her stomach was turned upside down just at the thought. So many memories she had to face and perhaps for the first time after many years she had to fight as a slayer again. Angel looked at her in the back mirror. She couldn't tell if he was looking at her since he had no reflection, but he was. He knew how bad she must feel, going back to something she had abandoned and buried in her past. He had felt the same when he had returned to Ireland after two centuries. He just hoped she was ready to face whatever had taken her daughter.

Fred, who was standing beside him put a comforting hand on his shoulder. It was a gesture that meant 'everything's going to be okay, don't worry, we're here'. He smiled in gratitude.

Cordelia seemed lost in her own little universe, one not even Gunn could shake her out of. He only put a comforting hand around her shoulders, and held her to his chest. He couldn't know that Sunnydale reminded Cordelia – besides the hell that had been Sunnydale High and her presence in the scooby gang – of her family and most important her father. A father that had abandoned her and left her to rot in poverty after a lifetime spent in luxury. She let her head rest on Gunn's chest. She hated when those memories surged up and haunted her.

Finally, the Summers home appeared, seeming even older and desolating then the rest of Sunnydale. This wasn't the Summers home, it was only the skeleton that had remained after the family that once dwelled inside it had disappeared in death or other cities.

Angel pulled in the drive way and they got out of the car. Buffy thought he looked even better in sunlight then he did in the darkness. He seemed…well almost human. For some reason though the image didn't seem strange. Maybe because in the past she had dreamed

of him in daylight too many times. She had wondered why he didn't use the spell all the time, but when she had seen it done, she understood it was too complicated to be done every two days.

"What's wrong?" Angel asked when she saw her staring at him.

"Nothing, I just never really saw you in daylight," Buffy admitted.

"The sun'll be setting soon," Angel said turning towards the sun in stead of denying her words - she had seen him in daylight before, she just couldn't remember. Even if now it was a pretty common thing for him, the sun never seemed to stop surprising him with its majestic beauty. He figured it was because he was a vampire and he was damned to roam in the darkness not the light.

"Ready?" Cordy asked Buffy putting a hand on her shoulder. Buffy took a deep breath and nodded while Gunn pulled an ax and several other weapons out of the trunk. He handed Angel the ax. It had been the vampire's ax for 10 years, the one he had fought with and grown fond of over the years, but this time Angel refused it handing it over to Buffy. She was the leader of this case.

The slayer advanced to the front door and her hand, trembling, not from fear, but emotion, gripped the handle. She slowly opened the door – the neighborhood kids must've forced it open, they would've done the same anyway – it screeched loudly. It was rusty. No one had entered the house for a while. She went inside and the state the house was in depressed her. Everything was full of dust. Some broken chairs lying on the floor, the once beautiful carpets were eaten away by pests and everything seemed to creek and crack. If she didn't know better she'd believe the house was about to fall on their heads.

Cordy coughed when the dust rose in the air when she picked up a fallen cloth.

"Boy, with the LA air you'd think I'd be use with a little dust," she said dropping the moldy old cloth back on the floor with a grimace. "Ew"

"So where is it?" Gunn asked looking around the house. He didn't see no morphing slayer anywhere.

"It has to be around here. Somewhere," Buffy said looking around, not knowing where to search or what to search for.

"Didn't the oracles say anything?" Fred turned to Cordy. She shook her head.

"All they said was that she has to find her way to her roots. Listen to her blood," Cordy said.

"Okay I listened to my freaking blood, I'm in Sunnydale and they don't show?" Buffy was getting impatient.

"Maybe it's upstairs," Fred suggested. Buffy suddenly froze, she heard a voice, a whispering in the wind.

'Follow the blood…blood of the sacred…blood of the slayers,' the voice sang in her ears.

"Did you hear that?" Buffy asked the others, but they didn't seem to have heard anything.

'Follow the blood…' the voice whispered again.

"You heard it right?" Buffy asked again.

"What is it saying?" Angel asked her. They didn't hear anything.

"Follow the blood. Blood of the sacred. Blood of the slayers," Buffy repeated the voice's exact words.

'Follow your blood, slayer…' the voice sang and a little light appeared in front of her eyes and ran up the stairs whispering intelligible words.

"It's upstairs," Buffy said and headed for the stairs.

"Should we…" Gunn started, but Buffy cut him off:

"I have to go alone," Buffy said as she entered a trance like state.

'What are you waiting for?' the voice asked again. Buffy moved upstairs, ignoring the noise the stairs made as she walked, ignoring the ghosts that seemed to call her from every room. Her smiling mother, Tara shot in the prime of her youth, a very young Dawnie and herself when she was just 16. She stopped in front of her old room. For some reason she felt the awkward feeling of having to knock on the door, like she was disturbing someone who was inside. She opened the door slowly and her eyes went wide when she spotted Fatima sitting down on the bed.

"Fatima?" her voice trembled.

"Mommy?" the little girl looked up, confused to see her mother there, then she disappeared.

"Fatima?" Buffy asked again whimpering. Suddenly another figure appeared in front of her, abruptly, like she had been torn out of the universe and put there.

"You're looking in the wrong place," Tara said before she faded away, leaving silence behind her. Still holding on to the doorknob, Buffy fell to her knees, crying. Fatima had never set foot in Sunnydale and the ghosts of the slayers had not brought her here. Her image had been only an illusion. And Tara? Why Tara? Had it really been her? Had the sweet witch returned from heaven to tell her she had been wrong? No, it couldn't have been her. Tara was gone. Then who? The shape shifter again? No. Tara, Tara…then it suddenly hit her, the voice of the prime slayer. She had used her before why wouldn't she use her again?

She got up though her knees still trembled and she felt like any kind of strength she had, had disappeared from the moment the door had opened.

"Buffy?" a weak voice asked. It was Fred. "Are you okay?"

The slayer wiped away the tears with her sleeve before telling her:

"Yeah. She's not here. They're not here. We're in the wrong place."

"Are you sure?" Fred asked, though the state the slayer was in told her it was true.

"Positive. We have to go back to LA," Buffy added as she went downstairs, leaving behind her the haunted hallways of her youth. Fred followed her, worried.

"Well?" came an impatient question from Gunn.

"Nothing. We're in the wrong place," Buffy repeated the phrase.

"I hate it when this happens," Cordy said exasperated. "It's good to know this trip was pointless. Just sliced old wounds open for nothing!"

"Cordelia!" Angel rose his voice.

"I'm sorry…It's just I wasn't really ready to come back here," Cordelia apologized.

"You and me both," Buffy said looking around the house uneasy. "If I think of everything I've gone through in this house and look at it now. It's a dump."

"What now?" Gunn asked looking for answers. He didn't regret the trip. He finally got to see what the famous Sunnydale looked like.

"We go back to LA," Angel said. "We probably overlooked something."

"Like what? Buffy's roots are here. This is where everything happened. The parental house," Cordy reminded him.

"Is it?" Angel asked. He wasn't sure.

"What if it's not her roots we're talking about? There's a lot of talk of blood. Kindred blood. Blood of the sacred. Blood of the slayers," Fred suggested. "What if it's the root of all the slayers?"

"The root of all slayer is evil," Angel said surprising everyone. "Evil is what brought on the appearance of the first slayer. Or vampires."

"And we're suppose to…guess where the first slayer appeared?" Gunn didn't like the idea.

"So was there like a first watcher?" Cordy asked and Angel shook his head.

"I don't think so. This first slayer, from what Buffy said, sounds primordial, uncontrollable," Angel said.

"Hence no watcher," Cordy got it.

"They must've appeared later on," Angel said.

"Which would rule out going to England," Fred told them. "Then the root of all slayers can't be the Watcher's Council, right?"

"It's the first slayer," Gunn understood.

"But how the hell are we suppose to find out where she's from?" Cordy asked.

"The watcher's council might know at least about the grave," Angel suggested.

"We find the first slayer – dead or alive – and we'll find the root," Gunn finished. "We find the root, we find Buffy's daughter. End of story."

"Where is Buffy?" Cordy suddenly asked. They all realized while they had gotten carried away with their conversation the slayer had disappeared.

"I'll go find her. Cordy you're coming with me. Gunn, Fred stay here in case something does happen," Angel decided.

"I think it would be best if you went alone. She doesn't want to see anyone now, it'll be easier for her if it'll be just you," Cordy said with her back turned away from Gunn and Fred. Before Angel could protest her lips formed the word 'Please' without making a sound.

Angel nodded in approval. Cordy didn't want to leave Gunn and Fred alone. She was still paranoid about them, but she didn't want to show it because she loved them both and her distrust would only hurt them. Angel understood her.

As he left the house his thoughts turned to Buffy. She was obviously in despair that she hadn't found her daughter. He knew how she felt. He had felt the same after his attempt with black magic to bring Connor back had ended in failure. The problem was he didn't know if he could mend her broken heart this time.

"I wonder if they found her," Wesley asked as he sipped the tea from the cup Faith had just handed him. His skin was sore from the acid slime and the lemon juicy he had put on it. He winced in pain at every movement.

"We'll know soon enough," Faith assured him. Wesley winced in pain when he put the cup back down on the table and Faith smiled.

"Sometimes I wonder if he still hates me," the british man said sighing.

"He doesn't hate you. Maybe he still has an old grudge, but that's no reason to send you to the slime monsters," Faith told him.

"That's not as comforting as it sounds," Wesley told her and she lifted her shoulders.

"Then think of it another way. He needed all the help he could get. He wouldn't play a prank when he needs you most" Faith said and Wesley nodded.

"Good point," he said. "So did you talk to Wes? How long has he been having these powers?"

"From his birth apparently," Faith said while she turned the water on in the sink and started washing the dishes.

"That long? How could the Oracles be wrong?" Wesley didn't understand.

"Beats me. All I get is that my kid probably knows more then I'll ever know and he's only 4," Faith said.

"And that bothers you?" Wesley was surprised.

"Hell no," she put away a cleaned plate. "Just makes me think how limited I am."

"There's something new," Wesley noted. "I thought all the book mombo-jombo wasn't for you, you were made to put evil out of its misery," he recited part of a speech she had made him.

"I'm beginning to think that was stupid. Maybe there's knowledge in books or something," Faith said while she started cleaning a knife.

"And it took you only what? 4, 5 years around me to figure that out?" Wesley asked smiling. "Where's all this coming from? Tell me some spirit didn't possess you" he joked, but Faith gave him no answer. "Faith?" he turned his head towards her. The slayer was holding a knife in her hand, staring at it like she was hypnotized. "Faith?" the ex-watcher stood up, ignoring his pain and stepped over to the slayer. "Faith are you okay?" Wesley noticed the blade of the knife was just an inch away from her wrist. "Let go," Wesley tried to get the knife out of her hand, but it seemed to be stuck. "Faith!" he tried to wake her from her reverie but she seemed frozen. "Faith!"

"Mommy!" little Wesley appeared in the doorway of the kitchen. Faith unfroze immediately, dropping the knife in the kitchen sink. She rushed to hug her son.

"What happened Wes, what happened?" Faith asked under her breath.

"I don't know," Wesley said from behind her, still stunned of what had happened.

"It's okay now, mommy," little Wes whispered in her ear. He knew what had happened, but he couldn't tell her. All he could say was that everything was going to be okay. Soon.

Angel was wondering through the streets of Sunnydale, not really knowing where he was going. The sun had set down a few hours ago and he still hadn't found Buffy. He went to all her favorite places, cemeteries, cafes, he even broke in the Sunnydale High, he took a stroll into the UC Sunnydale campus, he entered the old Bronze, the Magic Box, anything he knew would hold memories for her, but there was no sign of the blond slayer anywhere. He returned to the Summers home but she hadn't come back there. He decided to go to the Bronze one last time before retiring back into her old house and just wait for her to decide it was time to come back.

After taking a tour around the collapsing Bronze he was about to give up when he heard struggle coming from the back alley. A fight. He went out the back door and found Buffy fighting a vampire. She hadn't really lost her skill over the years, it wasn't something to be lost because it was in her blood. He didn't interfere in the fight, leaving her to take out her frustrations on the vampire. She didn't even seem to notice him as she kicked and punched the vampire blindly. Soon though the vampire found his end in an improvised stake. Buffy was left panting from the effort.

"Hi," Angel said when she finally noticed his presence.

"Hi," Buffy said her breath coming back to normal.

"Been looking for you," Angel said.

"I know. You almost found me once," Buffy told him.

"So why didn't I?" Angel wanted to know, though he pretty much knew why.

"Needed some me time" she admitted and then added: "You know, I fought like thousands of demons and saved the world a bunch of times and never really got scared while doing it, but this…it's just overwhelming."

"I know," Angel said.

"And you know what the worse thing is? My own history is biting back at me. It's not some demon or vampire, it's slayers. You can't even do a good thing in this world that can't turn back and haunt you the moment you do something that upsets it," Buffy said. "I was tired of fighting, why didn't they get that? I needed a life. A real life one that didn't depend on demon hunting and patrol. What were they expecting? That I'll fight vampires till I'm sixty because I'm still alive?"

"Was it just that?" Angel asked.

"You wouldn't understand. You do what you do for redemption. And you and all your crew… At the end of the day you can still consider you have lives. Lives you love," Buffy sighed. "Maybe you were meant to fight demons, but it wasn't your duty. You can quit any time you want."

"But you know we can't, not when people's lives at stake," Angel told her, but she shook her head.

"What about my life? Was it worth sacrificing it all for the sake of humanity? Sure one little life for the lives of billions, but I wanted to live too. I wanted a normal life too. Once I did my duty, I killed myself to save the world, to save my sister. That could've been the end. That should have been the end. Another slayer in the endless line. And then the Watcher's Council would've made themselves a new slayer and history would've been made. But I'm here, aren't I? Back from the grave. And what did I have to show for it? Desperation and a broken heart. It's funny when you come back from heaven you have the feeling you're living in hell. And the feeling that I had to start over, just that thought made want to jump off a building again but I didn't do it. And why? For my sister and the stinking world that wants everything and gives nothing back. Not for my friends who were so ruthless, so selfish they tore me out of heaven. How could they even imagine I would wind up in hell? I was a slayer!" Buffy said in a breath.

"You don't mean that," Angel said and Buffy shook her head.

"Maybe I don't. I love them, but I don't know if I really ever forgave them. It was a stupid thing to do. Giving me back a life I didn't want…No one would give me the life I wanted, so I made it myself. I just needed the courage to do it and Fatima" she sighed. "Fatima gave me more courage then I ever had. Only after I left I understood that it wasn't just my life caught in the middle, but everyone's. We all needed to take a step away from Sunnydale and by leaving I let them take that step. And now I'm being punished for it? God!"

"I understand what you did. I understand too well. My life took away my first son when he was just a baby and brought him back to me a revenge thirsty teenager so a few years later he could run away from me. Then Faith was kidnapped by demons when she was nine months pregnant. How do you think I felt when Wesley was born? I just wanted to take him away. Away to Europe or even Tibet in the middle of no where, where no one could find him and take him from me, but I…" Angel stopped.

"You couldn't. You had to stay and fight," Buffy finished his phrase.

"Yes, but it's not just that…I was promised that one day I'll become human if I fight evil that long and win this redemption. I stayed because I want my son to have a real father one day. A father that doesn't have to hide in the darkness," Angel said and Buffy was surprised.

"Human?" she smiled. "If I could count the times I've dreamed of that."

"A million times?" he remembered what she had once said.

"More," Buffy smiled again.

"Why didn't you talk to me until now?" Angel asked.

"I was just…scared you'd be too changed and I'd get freaked," Buffy admitted. "But you know, you're not all that changed. Deep down, under all those smiles and happiness, there's still that broody old Angel I knew," she joked.

"And beyond the angst and despair, you're still the slayer I loved," Angel said. "So you wanna go home now?"

"No, not yet," she looked up at the sky, it was clouded. "So can I have a hug now?" she turned towards the vampire and he smiled. "One of those big comforting hugs."

He hugged her tight to his chest and the slayer sighed. She didn't have to go home. She was already there.

The little boy was sleeping again, but this time, Fatima didn't seem to be around. He was dreaming of an endless green field that spread as far as they eye could see. He felt happy here. It was so peaceful. Suddenly he woke up.

"I wondered why you didn't show up," he said as he looked over at the girl standing on the edge of the bed.

"I wanted to see where you lived," Fatima said. "A hotel. It's pretty. Much bigger then our house."

"Why didn't you tell me you're not in Sunnydale?" the boy asked. He had overhead Wesley's conversation with Cordy on the phone.

"You never asked," Fatima smiled.

"Aren't you suppose to be on your mother's side?" little Wes asked.

"I don't think there are sides," Fatima said.

"There are sides, but you can't see them," the boy sighed.

"I know they're not evil," Fatima looked him straight in the eye.

"How do you know they won't kill your mom?" little Wes asked.

"They won't. They're too good to kill," Fatima protested.

"They killed before why shouldn't they kill again?" the boy asked and Fatima let out and exasperated sigh.

"You're no fun," she said and disappeared.

"And you are?" little Wes asked the darkness, cross.

They got back to LA by morning. When they entered the lobby they found Wesley senior asleep on the couch, a book opened in his lap and Faith, asleep as well, with her head on his shoulder. Faith's eyes fluttered open when she heard the door close behind them.

"Morning," Faith said sleepily.

"Morning to you too," Angel smiled. She had such a cute morning look.

"Did you find her?" Faith asked, not noticing Buffy behind the vampire. Wesley had called Cordy the previous night and found out the slayer had disappeared and Angel had gone looking for her.

"Yup, I'm here," Buffy stepped in front from behind Angel. Wesley opened his eyes too. He took off his glasses and rubbed his tired eyes.

"What were you doing anyway?" Cordy asked.

"Waiting for you. Oh, and I read Faith from John Keats," Wesley said and the group seemed surprised.

"Intellectual fancies?" Gunn faked a british accent.

"Never too late for 'em," Faith said before yawning.

"So what do we do now?" Wesley asked putting his glasses back on.

"I guess we get back on the horse," Cordy said barely holding back a yawn. They didn't get too much sleep in the car.

"I think you should sleep for a while," Buffy dismissed her words. "A tired team isn't a good team."

"Don't worry about us. Ten cups of java and we're back," Gunn said.

"No, really, get some rest," Buffy was determined.

"Are you sure?" Fred asked.

"Yeah, go to sleep," Buffy assured them. "I think she's safe. And this whole root thing, I think I'm the only one who can figure it out. I'll wake you up if I do."

"She is safe," little Wes came downstairs, sleepy. "You're back," he went running into Angel's arms.

"Are you sure?" Buffy looked over at the boy that was now smiling in his father's embrace.

"She seems very happy where she is," little Wes said.

"She came to you again?" Buffy asked this time calmly, not in the hysterical way she had acted the first time.

"She comes to me every night. She won't let me sleep," the boy said.

"How is she, is she good, did she say anything?" Buffy let the questions flow out of her.

"She says she misses you but she doesn't know if she wants to come back. The world is too pretty where she is," little Wes said.

"Next time you see her tell her…tell her I love her and I'll find her and bring her back," Buffy said.

"I will," the boy assured her. The phone suddenly rang.

"Angel Investigations. We help the helpless," Cordy picked up immediately. "Oh, hi. Just a sec. Buffy, it's for you. It's Dawn."

"Dawn? Hi," Buffy took the phone away from Cordy.

"So did you get her back? I was hoping for an ice cream pig out with my favorite niece this afternoon," Dawn answered cheerfully from the other end of the phone.

"Uhm…no, we didn't find her yet, but I'd take you up on that ice cream. I need some cheering up and maybe you can help me out with something," Buffy told her.

"Sure, anything I can do to help," Dawn said worried. "So you'll come over later?"

"How about now?" Buffy suggested.

"Mmm, sure," Dawn said.

"I'll see you then. Bye," Buffy hung up. "I'm gonna go see Dawnie."

"Aren't you gonna sleep?" Angel asked her.

"Nah! I couldn't close an eye. Besides if I would sleep I'd probably get visited by dead slayers and I really don't feel like it today," Buffy said as she headed for the door. "I'll see you guys later. Bye."

"So we're sleeping? Yay!" Cordy stretched. "I think my back is broken forever from that back seat."

"I think a massage is in order before I get you into bed," Gunn told her as he headed upstairs.

"Uhhh, now you're talking," Cordy said cheerfully and followed him upstairs.

"I want a massage too," Fred pouted. "See this is why I should date more."

"I'll give you one," Angel promised. He often did massages, it was like Cordy giving them an aura clean now and then.

"Yay!" Fred cheered and went upstairs.

"Did you eat?" Faith asked Angel.

"Didn't have time," Angel said.

"Nothing screams good morning like a cup of warm blood. Go give Fred her massage and I'll make you one," Faith told him. "Wanna come with me?" she asked her son.

"I think I'll go back to sleep. I hope she won't bother me again. She's upset with me," little Wes said.

"I'll take you to bed then," Angel scooped the boy in his arms and Faith gave him a thankful smile. The vampire and his son disappeared upstairs.

"Well, I think it's time for yet another lemon bath," Wesley said sighing. "Maybe these damn rashes will finally disappear."

"Oh and maybe later you can read me more from Keats," Faith said.

"You liked it?" Wesley was impressed.

"Totally," Faith said smiling before heading for the kitchen to make Angel his warm blood.

After leaving Fred asleep in her room, she had been so tired she had fallen asleep during her massage, Angel looked in on his son and found him asleep as well. He sighed relieved. Buffy seemed to feel better after their conversation and on the way back to LA they had talked about old times and all the adventures they had gone through without each other. It kept her mind off Fatima and somewhat cheered her up. He had told her all about Pylea and how Cordy's dream of becoming a princess had come true, about Wolfram & Hart, Darla and Dru, Holtz, Justine and Connor and how he spent four months underwater. And she had told him about the singing demon Sweet and how Willow had stepped beyond the red line after her lover was killed and how Xander brought her back to them and about the Geek Troika, heaven, hell and George and her time out in Xander's grandparents's house and her time in the New Sunnydale Highschool and the shape shifter. They had talked about everything, while the others slept. The two of them left out two details though. Spike and Cordy and their love.

Angel went downstairs. It was time to drink that warm cup of blood Faith had offered him. As the years passed, his crew seemed to invent new ways of making the blood he drank tastier. They even offered to put some of their own blood in with his regular, but he had refused them. The last person he had drunk from had been Faith and sometimes he still had the urge to bite into her. Sometimes they bought him human blood from the hospital, though he didn't like the idea of drinking the blood some people needed to survive with. So his crew had promised to donate blood any time they bought him any from the hospital. It was a fair trade, that's what they said.

He could feel the smell of blood before he entered the kitchen. It was human blood. They had probably bought him some from the hospital a couple of days ago, that's what he thought, but when he entered the kitchen his eyes went wide. Faith was sitting over the kitchen sink with a knife in her hand and a wrist cut.

"I didn't want to make a mess," she said as she held her bleeding wrist over the sink.

"What are you doing?" he asked as he brutally took the knife away from her throwing it across the kitchen.

"I…I…" she had trouble breathing. "I don't know," she eventually said. "I was just…" she looked over at the bag of blood she had left on the table. "I just woke up with the knife in my hand and it was like someone was telling me to do it…"

"Are you hearing voices?" Angel asked worried.

"No…it was someone," Faith almost broke down into sobs. Angel hugged her.

"It's okay. It's okay, we'll figure this out. I knew something was wrong from the other night," Angel told her. Behind them Dennis was busy poring Angel's blood into a glass.

"Please don't leave me alone again," Faith whimpered.

"I'm here. I won't leave you," Angel said and Faith held on to him even tighter. She was afraid of what she would do to herself.

"Root, root," Dawn repeated the word as they walked down the street. "Sunnydale would be most likely, but if you've been there…"

"I looked everywhere. Home, the old Sunnydale High even the Bronze. Nothing," Buffy said as they stopped on the steps of a building and sat down.

"Maybe it is the root of all slayers," Dawn suggested.

"I don't know. I think this is mostly about me, so it should be my root, not theirs," Buffy said.

"I give up," Dawn said. "Ever thought if it's back here in good ol' LA?"

"Yeah. I was a slayer for a couple of months around here after all. I walked around our old neighborhood a bit before I came to see you. I didn't feel or see a thing," Buffy told her.

"You have to feel something?" Dawn asked.

"Yeah, it's like a voice and this little light. They knew I was going to go to Sunnydale so they sent a message through the voice of the prime slayer, through Tara, that I was looking in the wrong place," Buffy told her.

"God, what I wouldn't give to see her again. Just so I can tell her how much I cared about her," Dawn sighed. Tara had been one of the most amazing and kind people she had ever met. "Buffy?" she asked when she saw her sister was staring off.

Buffy suddenly flashed back into the past and she found herself on the steps of the building she was standing on right then, at the age of 15. How could have she forgotten? She was holding a lollypop in her hand and a man came up to her.

"Buffy Summers?" he asked. She knew what would come next. She flashed back into the present.

"We're here," Buffy said.

"Here where?" Dawn asked confused.

"The root… This is the root, Dawnie. The steps of my old highschool. This is where I was called for the very first time, when I was 15," Buffy told her. "How could I have been so stupid? Of course this was it! The root. Hemery High! The very first time I even heard the word slayer spoken. God!"

She wanted to go up. She wanted to find Fatima, right then, but Dawn put a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't. I don't know if you're ready to fight whatever this thing is. Go get Angel," Dawn said in a commanding voice. "I don't want to lose you again so don't make me kick your ass over there! I've had my share of vampire butt kicking."

Buffy smiled. Her sister was right she had to get Angel and his crew. She was an easy prey without them.

"Soon, my Fatima, soon. I'll come back for you, I promise," she whispered before heading out to Angel Investigations.

End Part 8


	10. Part 9

**Part 9**

"_One day he woke to see the world with different eyes_

_The light was brighter - not a shadow_

_The sun was greater – not pale, not hidden_

_The clouds seemed white - not dark, not raging_

_And rain was bliss – not sad, not drowning_

_One day he woke to see the world spinning into infinity_

_Not ending, just beginning"_

"Buffy, what's wrong?" Angel asked when Buffy stormed in, followed by a barely breathing Dawn.

"I found it!" Buffy said. "I found the root!"

"Where?" Faith asked coming out from behind Angel.

"Here! In LA," Buffy explained. "When I was called for the very first time, I was here, on the steps of my old high school, remember?" she looked over at Angel, knowing he had been there that day.

"How could I forget?" Angel said the idea of her root being there suddenly dawning on him too.

"I'll go wake the others," Faith said quickly disappearing upstairs.

"Hi," Dawn finally managed to say after catching her breath a little.

"Hi," Angel said smiling. He hadn't seen Buffy's little sister since she had been a toddler.

"Nice place you got here," Dawn said while Buffy waited impatiently for the others to show.

"I barely fell asleep!" a sleepy Fred complained as she came downstairs. "God, I need some café!"

"There's still some left from yesterday," Angel told her.

"Cold, yucky coffee, ugh!" Fred grimaced, but went straight for it. Gunn and Cordy appeared, ready for battle, much less sleepier then Fred.

"You have that aura cleansing look. That or you still didn't return the cappuccino machine," Fred noted and Angel immediately shot Cordy a look.

"Fred! You know we would never keep the machine," Cordy said but her smile betrayed her. "Promise I'll return it tomorrow?" she looked over at Angel who was obviously unconvinced by her words.

"That's what you said two weeks ago," Angel reminded her while Faith came downstairs followed by Wesley. Gunn was busy removing weapons from their cabinet.

"So you think you'll make it?" Buffy looked at Faith.

"Yeah, my leg's still a little sore, but it mostly healed," Faith assured her.

"What happened to your wrist?" Fred asked while she accepted the sword Gunn handed her.

"Accident," Angel answered instead of the slayer. Wesley suspected it was something else though. "Someone has to stay with Wes."

"Your son?" Dawn asked and Angel nodded. "I can stay. I'm not really fighting material," she offered.

"Okay, just be careful," Angel said. "He's sleeping now. If you want to know anything, just ask Dennis the house ghost, okay?"

"You have a house ghost? That's so cool," Dawn said enthusiastically.

"Let's move out," Gunn said heading for the door.

"Good luck and bring Fatima back," Dawn told them while they left the Hyperion Hotel. When she was alone, she smiled. Some exploring was in order.

As soon as they entered the highschool, the coldness of the place stroke them. It was freezing! They expected at least some people to be inside, but there was no one. Sure, it was summer, but the faculty still had to be around. There was no one. The entire building was empty of human presence, while the mystical one was thick in the air.

"I think it's under renovation," Cordy said referring to the school.

"That or no one could stand the cold," Gunn suggested.

They advanced in the main hallway and as they did, little by little, Buffy seemed to flash back to the days she had studied there. Someone opened a locker under her own eyes and took a book out before disappearing the next second and leaving the locker closed. Then a group of girls passed by her, giggling, only to fade away behind her. She knew the others couldn't see what she saw because those were her own memories coming back. The flash backs intensified and suddenly she found herself fully enveloped in them. She was 15 again and walking those hallways as a student. She didn't realize she had stopped in the middle of the hallway.

"Buffy?" Angel asked when he saw her stop, but she couldn't hear him. In her flash back, Buffy looked down at her clothes, she remembered these clothes, but where from? Sure she pretty much remembered all her clothes, but these were different. She twisted something in her hand. It was a lollypop. She dropped it on the floor as if it had burnt her. She was back in that day. The day she became a slayer. She turned around and looked at the exit of the highschool. She had one more period and then she would go home or that's what she thought. She would walk out and Merrick would be waiting for her on the steps bringing her, her destiny. She had to stop it. It couldn't happen again. She couldn't become the slayer. She turned around and looked back into the hallways and started running.

"What is she doing?" Cordy asked.

"I don't know, but something's wrong," Angel said. "We have to follow her."

"Buffy!" Wesley tried yelling, but there was no use. The slayer couldn't hear them.

"You go and find Fatima, I'll get her," Faith said as she head out in the direction Buffy had disappeared into.

"You think they'll be okay?" Cordy asked concerned.

"I hope so," Angel answered her before they split up to try and find Fatima.

In her flash back, Buffy reached the girl's bathroom and as she entered she tripped on something and fell on the floor. Her knee was bruised. Something in her mind told her she couldn't see the bruise through her pants, but here, she could, because she was wearing a skirt. She gathered herself in a corner and started crying. She was fifteen and just a simple girl, she could afford to cry.

"Buffy?" a voice asked from the doorstep of the bathroom. She looked up to see Faith. What was Faith doing here? She'll meet her only in three years.

"Faith? What are you doing here? Go away before someone sees you," the slayer stood up and grabbed Faith by the hand and dragged her out of the bathroom. "You have to get out of here."

"Why?" Faith asked not understanding what was wrong. Buffy looked on both sides of the hallway alarmed that all the people passing by them looked at them oddly. Faith followed her gaze not seeing anything in the empty hallways. "Buffy, what's wrong?"

"Go! I'll see you in Sunnydale, okay?" she told the brunette slayer.

"But…Buffy!" Faith tried to stop her from shoving her away. Suddenly Buffy snapped out of her flash back and the hallways of the school were empty again.

"What the hell just happened?" Buffy asked and Faith shook her head. She had no idea either. "I guess we're in the right place. We are the others?"

"They went to find Fatima," Faith told her. "Are you sure you're okay now? You freaked me for a moment there."

"Yeah, I just had a weird flash back to the good old high school days," Buffy told her. "Let's go find them."

Suddenly a cold wind blew, passing through the hallways of the empty school with a whistling sound.

'Follow your blood…blood of the sacred…blood of the slayers' the voice sang in the wind.

"Did you hear that?" Buffy asked and Faith nodded. The light from the Summers home reappeared, this time brighter, leading the way. The two slayers followed the light as it went downstairs and headed for the gym. The gym Buffy had once torched. They didn't even notice when they passed by Cordelia, Angel and Gunn

"Faith? Buffy?" Cordelia tried to get their attention. "Great! What is this like an ignoring epidemic?"

The two slayers walked right past them, seeming hypnotized by the light the others couldn't see.

"We didn't find anything," Fred and Wesley came running towards them. "What's up with them?" she pointed towards the two entranced slayers.

"Let's find out," Angel said and followed the two women inside the gym. As soon as they entered, the doors closed shut behind them.

"Oh, great," Cordy sighed. "Has anyone besides me noticed our tendency to get ourselves trapped?"

"I was thinking about that the other day, when I was stuck in the kitchen of the pizzeria with ten hungry Gogras," Wesley said gripping his ax harder.

"I hate it when we don't know how to fight something. Give me flesh and bone demons any day!" Gunn complained, while the two mystified slayers snapped out of their reverie.

"When did you guys get here?" Faith asked them, but the crew didn't bother to answer as a ghostly shape began forming itself in the middle of the gym, seeming to suck away the air in the small twister it created. Then suddenly a presence lowered itself into the vortex. A woman, a long, frail figure, with flour skin and long white hair, her eyes closed.

"You've finally come," the ghost said, her voice as cold as her features. Her eyes opened, they were hollow, a galaxy of souls seeming to spin inside them like stars on the edge of a black hole.

"What are you?" Buffy asked disturbed.

"I am the slayer. I hold inside me the thousand souls of slayers. I have been made because of you," the ghostly shape spoke, her icy voice echoing in the coldness of the gym. "I have no shape. What you see is the fruit of your own imagination. My image is a mirror your mind projected on my being. I am one and yet I am thousands. Thousands that have gone beyond death and now search revenge against you. I am Sadyia the poet," the ghost turned itself into the slayer whose name she had spoken. "I am Regina the child-slayer," the ghost shifted its features to those of the child. "I am Isabela the whore," she turned into the beautiful Italian girl. Angel startled at her appearance. Isabela gave him a cold stare. "How could you?" Isabela turned towards Buffy then looked over at Angel again before she shifted into another girl. "I am Katiuska the rose of Russia," the ghost began changing forms faster, whispering the names of the dead slayers before changing again.

"You see I am all of them and soon I will be you as well," the ghost said when she had taken the form of a young Chinese girl. Her form then shifted to that of Kendra. "We're here to judge you, Buffy."

"Kendra?" Cordelia asked from the background.

"Judge me?" Buffy asked.

"Yes. I was created from the pits of eternity to bring the spirits of the slayers solace," the ghost took its initial form.

"And what are you gonna do, kill me?" Buffy asked. "Slayers don't kill."

"Slayers, perhaps not, but eternity has no conscience, for it does not need it," a chilling smile appeared on her frozen lips.

"You know what, B? I'm tired of talking, how about we get to the action?" Faith asked from behind the blond slayer.

"That sounds like a plan to me," Buffy was tired of trying to figure out what was happening. The two slayers tried attacking the floating being, but found themselves suspended in the air.

"You foolish little mortals! Do you think you can grasp the source of my power?" the ghost asked rising her voice. While the ghost was busy tossing Buffy and Faith around, Gunn and Angel managed to sneak behind her unnoticed.

Angel's lips formed a one, two, three and the two men charged from behind, shoving the ghost-like creature toward the wall. They didn't manage to shove her all the way as she quickly caught on and stopped her movement and with one hand threw the two men away.

"At least she feels real," Gunn said as he hit the wall. Taking advantage of yet another distraction, Cordy, Wes and Fred charged from behind, hoping they'd do a better job then Gunn and Angel. No such luck. This time the ghost had anticipated their move and pinned them to the wall before they had a chance to do anything. But as the ghost tried to manage with the trio, Faith and Buffy came from the side.

"Enough," the ghost yelled and her form split into twenty and each part of her took the shape of a different slayer.

"That's no good," Gunn said as he rose up clutching his ax.

"Twenty slayers against two slayers, a vampire, a half-demon and three normal people. Odds aren't looking too hot," Cordy said as she found herself back to back with Fred. The fight was about to start.

"Stop!" Buffy suddenly yelled. One of the twenty slayers stepped forward and took the shape of the ghost.

"Are you willing to submit to our judgement now?" the ghost asked her.

"Yes, but let them go," Buffy looked over at Angel and his crew. "I should've never got you involved in this. This is my fight."

"Buffy…" Angel started, but the ghost rose her hand to silence him.

"Don't say I don't trust you, but…" the ghost pinned Angel and his crew to the walls. They couldn't move. The other slayers dissolved into nothingness. "Well Buffy Anne Summers, you have done a great deal in your life, you've done good things, but you've betrayed the slayer kind and disturbed its peace. You woke up spirits that have passed beyond the thresh hold of humanity thousands of years ago. And that has no excuse."

"So what did I do so bad, that I woke up all the slayers?" Buffy asked crossing her hands over her chest.

"Let me show you," the ghost said stretching out her hand and rising the slayer off the floor of the gym. Then a thick fog enveloped them and Buffy felt as if they've left the gym. It was all in her head though, as she was just a foot off the floor, her eyes closed and her fingertips touching those of the ghost. Her spirit seemed to be transported in another dimension where there was no earth, no sky, just air and clouds and this strange ghost-like creature.

"Well?" Buffy asked the ghost.

"Beyond the obvious?" the creature asked as her fingers twirled in the clouds creating a vortex that slowly began resembling images. "You betrayed us when you loved vampires," the images showed her with Angel and then Spike.

"Angel had a soul and Spike…well he had a soul after a while, but…" Buffy started explaining.

"It was your duty! They killed us, you are our sister, you should've avenged our death," the ghost said, her voice seeming to echo those of the other slayers.

"Angel's not responsible for what he did when he was evil. He's a good man. A great man. A hero! Do you even know how many people would've died if it wasn't for him?" Buffy asked angrily.

"Do you know how many died because of him? Much more then you can even imagine. Those he saved are little compared to those he killed!" the voices of the slayers rose above that of the ghost.

"You can't compare dead people to living people," Buffy said.

"But we can," the ghost contradicted her. "Why would you say such foolish things? You of all people. Dead and alive does not matter to you. You break the boundaries as you wish. You have no honor."

"Wow, let's go back a couple of steps. Dead and alive does matter, cause hey, I'm alive now and if die, I'd be gone for good, okay? And I don't 'break the boundaries as I wish'" she imitated the ghost. "I only died twice in 27 years okay? And I didn't really bring myself back."

"You should've stayed dead," the ghost warned her.

"Maybe you're right. I wouldn't be here having this conversation if I were," Buffy was exasperated. "You know what, I did want to stay dead, okay? Heaven was a lot more fun then this place. I didn't chose to come back. My friends brought me back and now, because you're all sorry you didn't have friends who would tear you out of heaven you come to judge me? Well get a clue! I didn't do anything wrong. I loved who I wanted to love and I lived how I wanted to live and there is nothing left to judge. So go ahead kill me if you will."

"You are not suppose to die" the ghost didn't like her insolence. "She is," out of the mist, Faith appeared, still pinned to the wall. Suddenly she began choking. Buffy wanted to do something to help her, but found that she couldn't move.

"Leave her alone! What did she ever do to you?" Buffy asked trying to desperately break free of her immobility.

"She did nothing. She left the Council when she considered she was no longer worthy a slayer. We consider hers an act of honor. We will accept her, but she must die," the ghost explained while she choked the life out of Faith.

A wind suddenly blew, crossing the hallways of the Hemery High, running up streets and towards the Hyperion hotel, moving under its door, wrapping Dawn in a cold embrace then passing upstairs under the door of Angel's apartment and into little Wesley's room. The boy suddenly stood up.

"No!" he yelled and the wind enveloped him and he disappeared.

Little Wesley reappeared next to his mother, floating above the floor. He opened his eyes as he put himself between Faith and the ghost. A flash of light shone and Faith fell to the floor, breathing heavily.

"A little boy," the ghost said amused. "Powerful little thing."

Buffy looked through the opening in the clouds to see little Wesley standing in front of his mother. The clouds closed before she could say anything.

Back in the gym, the ghost stared at the boy questioningly before saying:

"I have what I want," she felt uneasy around the boy. With one flash she was gone and everyone, as they were, pinned to the walls suddenly collapsed and so did Buffy from mid-air. They all managed to gather themselves, only Buffy seemed to have taken a harder hit and had yet to wake up.

"Are you okay?" little Wesley asked his mother. Faith smiled at him.

"How did you know?" Faith asked standing up.

"I didn't," the boy told her.

"Buffy, come on, wake up," Angel was kneeled next to the slayer trying to wake her up.

"She's not there, daddy," the boy told him. "She took her with her."

"What do you mean?" Wesley interfered.

"The slayer lady took her spirit. She won't wake up unless she lets her wake up," little Wes told them.

"What happened?" Buffy asked the ghost, suddenly feeling much colder.

"Nothing of importance. She should have killed herself, your friend, but she is stronger then she seems and her boy… is more of the mystical then of the human," the ghost told her.

"I've noticed that about him. So is that what you're expecting me to do? Kill myself?" Buffy asked.

"Oh, no, that would be far too simple," the ghost-like creature smiled. It looked more like a grimace then a smile. "You see you no longer belong to your body. You are here in spirit. And no one but I can bring you back inside your flesh coffin."

"And what are you suggesting, I'm a prisoner in this dimension for eternity?" Buffy asked crossing her hands over her chest. "Or are you gonna send me to hell? Cause I've been there, done that. Not as scary as it sounds."

"No," the ghost like creature simply said. "Your spirit will transcend into each slayer that ever existed and you will live in their bodies following a fate already sealed and you won't be able to do anything about it. That is your punishment for abandoning us. So one day you will understand why we feel betrayed. You will feel our pain and hate our enemies and love those we loved and lost. Maybe you will gain some kind of sense of honor through it."

"And my daughter?" Buffy asked. Her mind didn't want to except their judgement, but she knew she had no other choice, she could do nothing, she knew her body was left somewhere in the gym of the Hemery High and her spirit had been stolen by this creature who claimed to be the keeper of all slayers.

"Your daughter will become the slayer," the voices of the slayers sang.

"That's ridiculous, she's only four years old," Buffy jumped.

"With our help she will be the greatest slayer of all time. Age does not matter, only skill" the slayers voices rang even louder then before.

"NO!" Buffy yelled. "I will accept your judgement, but you leave my daughter out of this freak show!"

"It is done, fate has chosen," the ghostly shape morphed so fast Buffy couldn't keep up with the many forms it took. Then suddenly a shape detached itself from the morphing mass. At first Buffy couldn't believe her eyes, but it was her. It was Tara.

"Tara…" Buffy started, but the Tara-shaped figure rose her hand and said:

"I am not that what you believe me to be. This shape is barely a vessel for I may have a voice."

"You're the first slayer," Buffy realized.

"I am," the person in Tara's form admitted. "And I cannot leave this injustice to be made. You have betrayed, but you were given no choice."

The ghostly figure stopped morphing, remaining in its initial form.

"Why do see them like this?" the first slayer asked Buffy. "Open your eyes. There is no one, only many."

Buffy looked back at the ghost-like creature and found that she couldn't see it anymore, it seemed to have dissolved in thousands of nameless faces, that all strangely, seemed familiar to her.

"They're not evil, they're angry, don't keep it against them," the first slayer spoke. "If you were one of them you would be angry too. Come with me, let me show me our beginning."

The Tara shaped slayer stretched out her arm. Maybe because she reminded her of the good witch that had been her friend or maybe because she felt she had no other choice she took her hand. They disappeared from the clouded dimension and found themselves in the middle of a rain forest.

"Where are we?" Buffy asked looking around.

"Shhh," the first slayer silenced her.

Suddenly they heard people approaching. They were running after something. Probably an animal, Buffy thought. Someone passed by them, running. It was barely walking on two feet. A group of hooded men followed at close distance. Buffy realized they couldn't see them. One of the men yelled something that sounded like gibberish and Buffy was amazed that she understood what it meant. The men had screamed 'Faster!'.

"Come on," the first slayer grabbed her by the hand and pulled her further into the forest. Very near them, the hooded men had caught what they had been chasing. Buffy was surprised to see what exactly they had caught. It was a black girl. The hooded men pulled her up and began walking away, very satisfied they had done their job.

"There," the first slayer pointed towards a temple. They immediately flashed inside it. Torches were burning everywhere and Buffy could hear chanting. She noticed the five hooded men were the ones singing, while another man, dressed in a blue robe was sitting in front of the black girl, who was now tied up. The man in the robe took a bowl into his hands and kneeled next to the girl.

"From flesh of man you were born," the man in the robe said in that weird language. "And because of your flesh one day you will rot," he put his fingers in the bowl and smudged the girl's forehead with blood. "I ask the spirits of the great beyond to lower themselves inside this mortal being and give humanity a champion. Her blood will go on forever," he put his fingers in the bowl again and drew a long bloody trail across the girl's cheek. Buffy knew that the girl was scared and that she couldn't understand what the man was doing or saying. "Her strength will pass on to her sisters. Send us a fighter, oh ancient one, give her the strength you took from our ancestors" a light shone and thunder could be heard from outside. Buffy turned around startled by the sudden sound. A beam of white light hit the tied up girl and the blood on her cheeks seemed to burn her, then suddenly with great strength the black girl broke free. The man in the blue robe smiled and the hooded men stopped their chant.

"We've done it!" the man in the robe said. The girl looked down at her hands. She could feel the strength coursing through her veins. She jumped the man in the blue robe angrily, digging her hands in his neck. He died instantly. The hooded men looked at her horrified.

"Evil spirit!" they screamed, but the girl couldn't understand their strange language, she was too frightened. She wanted them to die for whatever they had done to her. She attacked them, but the hooded men quickly made a run for it leaving the girl alone in the temple. She looked around not understanding where she was and what this place was. She looked at the fire burning in the torches. It was evil, that's what she felt. She tried to put them out, but she only burnt her fingers. She turned towards the shrine she had been kneeled in front of. What was this strength she felt? She kept asking herself. Suddenly two ghostly figures arose from the earth, a man and a woman.

"You are the chosen one," the woman said.

"You alone can stand against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness," the man told her. "You are the slayer."

And the ghostly shapes disappeared. The girl couldn't have known they had been oracles, but their words had meaning to her, unlike those of the hooded men. She looked around the room and found the bowls of paint in a corner. She kneeled down next to them and started painting her face. She was a warrior born to protect humanity. The temple faded away and Buffy found herself, yet again floating in the earthless dimension.

"You see, no slayer chooses to be what she is," the first slayer spoke to her and this time she had her real form, the painted lady, as little Wesley called her. The girl from the temple, the very first slayer of the world. "And no one can deny their root," she added. "When you become the slayer, you must become selfless or you will die. You were different. You weren't selfless and you did not die because of it. You stand for all the things we never stood for. We were champions, we died heroes and you dishonored us."

"Why do you have to be the ones dishonored? Isn't this about how much honor I lack? Why can't you just erase me from your book like you did Faith?" Buffy asked exasperated.

"Because she was never one of us. Not really. You were a slayer. You are a slayer and you can't… we won't let you forget that," the first slayer told her taking Tara's form again. Buffy thought back to the Temple and the first slayer. She had been scared like she was scared now. She didn't want to spend eternity living the lives of the other slayers. She wouldn't.

"It's time for you to accept your judgment," the ghostly figure had reappeared instead of the shadows of the slayers.

"There's no point in talking forever," the first slayer sighed before she disappeared inside the body of the ghost again.

"I. Am. The slayer. And I'm not going **anywhere**," Buffy said suddenly confident as if the realization had suddenly hit her. Even more, now she knew she could move and fight. "You know what, you showed me roots, you showed me your lives, your deaths, you took my daughter away from me! And after all this torture you expect **me** to take a punishment for being alive? Because I did better then you? Well you know what, I'm sorry for all of you, I know you're heroes and you gave your lives fighting for humanity and I admire that, but if I have to spend eternity fighting each one of you dead slayers to get out of here, I will."

The ghostly shape stared at her before attacking. Buffy blocked the first punch, but as she held on to her wrist she spun her around and kicked her in the back. Buffy realized they couldn't really throw each other too far away, because there was no where to fall or land. The clouded space they were in was very limited. 'God I wish I had that ax about now,' she thought as she dodged a punch, but when she snapped up the ghost was gripping her from behind. Buffy gave her the head butt Faith-style and then swept her legs out from under her. The ghost fell on her back and before she could get up, Buffy straddled her waist and began punching her in the face. Her thighs gripped on the ghost's legs like crazy. The ghost's hands came up to her neck trying to choke her. Buffy weakened under her iron grip enough for the ghost to manage to throw her off and get up and try and drag her by the hair. Buffy grabbed her wrist, sinking her nails into it and then rising her other hand on the ghost's arm, pulling her down next to her. Buffy grabbed her by the neck and started holding on tighter and tighter and tighter. She didn't care that the struggling ghost's hands were scratching her face. She just wanted her to die and for her to return to her body. With one twist of the neck, Buffy put an end to the ghost-like creature. Tired, she got up wondering why she wasn't back in her body yet. She didn't notice the ghost's eyes flew open or that she got up behind her and she could easily attack her again. In stead though the ghost clapped her hands. Buffy turned back to look at her.

"Congratulations, you past the test," the ghost said smiling, looking much more human now probably because she was bleeding.

"Test?" Buffy asked confused.

"You are the slayer. Now you're back," the ghost told her.

"What?" Buffy wasn't getting anything anymore.

"Our honor is restored. You are the slayer again. It's what we wanted," the ghost said.

"You're kidding. You could've just asked," Buffy couldn't believe it.

"And what would've happened?" the ghost asked. She was right. Before, Buffy would have never considered returning to slaying, but because of the slayers she had already done it.

"And this whole punishment thing was like a set up?" Buffy asked and the ghost shook her head.

"No, it was real. Our honor is worth at least that much. If you wouldn't have fought us you would have lived the thousands lives of slayers," the ghost told her.

"And my daughter, you were kidding about that, right?" Buffy said relieved.

"We cannot undo what fate has already done," the ghost said.

"But she can't be a slayer at four," Buffy complained.

"She won't be one if you see to it. She would have become the slayer today, if you would have lost against us and if Faith would have killed herself," the ghost explained. "She still has time."

"Time," Buffy repeated the word as if it had some kind of secret meaning.

"Go back, Buffy Anne Summers. You are the slayer and one day, a day far in the future we hope, we will welcome you among us," the ghost said taking a small bow in front of the slayer before vanishing. Buffy looked at the clouded space she was in one last time before her eyes fluttered open and she found herself, first in the hallway of the Hemery High, looking at herself at 15 heading for the exit. The young Buffy looked at the door.

"I'm scared," the fifteen year old girl looked back at Buffy and the old slayer smiled.

"There's nothing to be afraid of," she told her younger self before disappearing.

She woke up in the gym, in Angel's arms.

"Buffy!" Angel smiled and hugged her close.

"C'mon," little Wesley told her and she left Angel's embrace. The boy took her hand and lead her out of the gym into the main hallway and into the very last classroom of the corridor. At a desk, drawing on white paper with colored pencils, Fatima stood.

"Fatima!" Buffy let out, tears falling from her eyes.

"Mommy," Fatima ran in her mother's arms. Buffy rose her daughter off the floor.

"God, I missed you, honey, I missed you so much," Buffy said holding on tight to her daughter.

"I missed you too, mom," in the end Fatima had decided she wanted to come back to her mother. Sure, the slayers were nice and friendly, but no one on this earth compared to her mother, slayer or not.

It was six in the afternoon and they were all on the beach. They had picked up Dawn and went straight there. They all felt like loosing up. Angel's anti-sun spell would work for another couple of hours. Fatima and little Wesley were finally acting like children, building castles of sand, while Fred, Wesley, Gunn and Cordy joined in a volley match and the girls seemed to have the upper hand on the situation. Faith was still too weak to play, her leg wound would probably open from jumping around anyway. She, Angel, Buffy and Dawn were standing beside them keeping track of the game.

"It was you, wasn't it?" little Wesley asked Fatima as they built another tower on their castle.

"What?" Fatima asked.

"The wind. You're the one who sent the wind to me," little Wesley told her.

"I might have," Fatima said smiling. She waved at her mother who immediately waved back.

"So that's where I got all the depressing thoughts from," Faith said. "I don't wanna go through that again. Ugh!" her skin seemed to crawl at the very thought. "It was way too disturbing."

"Cheater!" Wesley yelled after Cordy, after she had landed a perfect ball over the net.

"Dream on, watcher-boy!" Cordy gave Fred a high five.

"Ghosts are whack," Buffy stated sighing. "It won't be too soon till I'll see another ghost!"

"How about our house ghost?" Angel asked.

"He's so cool! I think he cheats at cards, but still," Dawn said, she had got around to meet Dennis when she went sneaking into Angel's apartment.

"I'll make an exception," Buffy assured them.

"You know what I feel like?" Faith asked. "I feel like taking a bath in the ocean. My wounds are gonna hurt like hell from the salt, but I've been through worse. Any of you up for it?"

"Sounds like fun, but it's not like skinny dipping, right?" Dawn hesitated. "Cause I only do that at night when…"

"Dawn!" Buffy gave her little sister a questioning look.

"So how about that bath?" Dawn looked at Faith for escape.

"Yeah, c'mon, let's go," the slayer was happy to help her out.

"So you'll be going back to slaying?" Angel asked as he watched the two head out for the ocean.

"That's the plan. In like 12 years I'll be the mother of a slayer anyway so there's no point staying away from it," Buffy lifted her shoulders resigned.

"And you'll be going back to San Francisco? Or Sunnydale?" Angel asked looking into her eyes.

"Sunnydale? Never. Actually I was thinking of staying here in LA and as a matter of fact I wondered if you had a couch to spare," Buffy said smiling.

"Actually I have more then ninety rooms to spare," Angel said returning the smile.

End Part 9


	11. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

"_Last words have no importance, but in the brink of endings you can see what the future holds."_

A week later, the Hyperion Hotel was full of life as everyone unloaded boxes from the moving van, even Dawn and Lorne had come to help out and Angel had made another sun block spell for this special occasion. Buffy had taken her good-byes from San Francisco and was now saying her hellos to Los Angeles.

"Don't forget, celebration tonight at Caritas," Lorne reminded her as he passed by with a box in his hands.

"8 sharp," Buffy said remembering as she took a box in her arms and entered the hotel followed by Dawn.

"They're so sweet together," Dawn said looking over at little Wesley and Fatima who were playing in the lobby. "What happens if they fall for each other when they grow up? Ever thought about that?"

"That won't happen," Buffy shook her head.

"Well let's see. We have a blond curly green-eyed slayer, who'll probably grow up to be athletic and possibly a cheerleader and a broody, pensive male vampire/slayer combination, with brown puppy dog eyes, short hair – god forbid if he ever lets his hair grow I'll shave him myself - who'll probably have enough muscles, but too much brains for the football team. They're gonna' be tearing at each other," Cordy stated stopping next to them. "Better get use to the thought," she added before moving along.

"Hey, you and Angel never got to be happy maybe your kids will," Dawn tried to comfort her sister.

"Uggghh," Buffy was horrified at the thought.

"This is gonna be like old times! The slayer sisters back together," Faith smiled as she put a box down next to her. "Except no more back stabbing," she added after thinking her words over.

"Just like old times," Buffy smiled back before going out for another box.

"So the whole 'knowledge in books' thing was the depression talking?" Wesley asked Faith as he came near her to put down a box.

"Kinda, but I really liked John Keats, you'll have to read me more sometime," Faith said and Wesley seemed satisfied with that answer.

"Three boxes coming, three boxes coming," Gunn rushed in barely balancing the three boxes in his arms.

"I really appreciate you letting us freeload," Buffy smiled as she entered the hotel, side by side with Angel, with one of the last boxes in her arms.

"Freeload all you want. I paid for this whole hotel so it would be a waste of my money not to put it to good use," Angel told her.

"But I will get a job. I'll do the superman thing, secretary by day, demon fighter by night. Actually I'm even thinking of finishing college. I hear UCLA…" Buffy started.

"Don't even think about it," Dawn passed by her in a storm.

"We can negotiate the terms," Buffy yelled after her smiling. "I like new beginnings, especially when they're the good kind."

"If we are starting it fresh, I'd like to put everything behind us. There's just one thing I'm gonna ask," Angel told the slayer as they deposited their boxes on the floor.

"Go ahead," Buffy encouraged him.

"You and Spike…" Angel started.

"Totally," Buffy knew what he wanted to know. "You and Cordy?"

"Oh yeah," Angel was glad he was rid of the secret. Fred and Lorne came in with the last boxes. Fred sighed as she overlooked the others.

"You know what? Since everyone else is falling for everyone or is heading that way, maybe I should just fall for you. C'mon you have cute horns, green skin, great voice, paid shows in Vegas…" Fred said smiling.

"That's sweet of you and if I wouldn't hate my species reproductive system I'd take you up on that," Lorne smiled back. Fred laughed as she went to deposit the box with the others. Lorne shook his head as he closed the door behind him. Outside it was a sunny day. The shadow of a ghost seemed to pass by the old hotel and smile on its way to eternity.

The End


End file.
